Brose Bamberg celebrates 99:67 win after an outstanding second half

That was a win like in the old days two seasons ago, when Brose Bamberg sent a string of German league opponents packing by a margin of 30 plus points in the regular season! The newly formed Brose Bamberg swept Science City Jena aside by 99:67 – after an evenly poised first half (43:40), the team of Head Coach Ainars Bagatskis stepped up its aggression in defense and notched up an outstanding shooting percentage to take the third period by 32:13 and lay the foundation for a deserved victory.

Bamberg chalked up its first comfortable win of the season against Jena of all clubs. The 66:85 debacle on the road against the club from Thuringia in a similar formation in February 2018 resulted in the sacking of Head Coach Andrea Trinchieri, and so it was in some sense a special game, in particular for captain Nikos Zisis. The Greek player opened the scoring for Bamberg with a bucket from downtown plus a bonus free throw to help his side lead by 9:4 after four minutes, but after that Jena also kept the “new” Bamberg team in check for a long time: Bamberg no longer found an easy way through Jena’s aggressive defense and also conceded a number of wide-open threes at the other end, with the result that the club from Thuringia left Bamberg trailing by 26:31. However, the experienced Bamberg players were having none of that and hit back: First of all, Stevan Jelovac cut the deficit with four of his nine points, then Tyrese Rice and Nikos Zisis (11 points) tied the encounter at 40:40 with buckets from outside. And at the end of the second period, Bryce Taylor drained a buzzer beater to put his side 43:40 ahead – and the 6,000 Bamberger fans feted the 32-year-old on his home debut after 357 days out through injury.

Bamberg came back out like a completely changed team – Bagatskis must have stirred his team into action with a good pep talk. The home side now played with greater pace in attack and in defense, where it allowed far fewer gaps thanks to its zest and closed down the passing lanes more skilfully. As a result, Jena was not able to carve out any more simple shots and so only managed to add a meager two points in the first three minutes after the break. And Bamberg capitalized on that uncompromisingly: first three free throws by Tyrese Rice, then – once more to the cheers of the crowd – two buckets from beyond the arc by Bryce Taylor (9 points) made it 52:42 – a double-digit lead that meant Bamberg now played as if it were brimming with confidence. At last Bagatskis’ team impressed with fast combinations and strung passes together. In particular top scorer Tyrese Rice (18 points) showed that he has a good eye for his teammates. The American made 16 assists – his career record for a game, at least in the German league. And what brilliant passes Rice played: A short bounce pass while jumping to Elias Harris (8 points), a slam-dunk to make it 54:44, a further pass over almost half the court to the free-standing Patrick Heckmann (8 points), and a three to stretch the gap to 68:51. Bamberg played as if unleashed and decided the game in its favor by taking the period 32:13. Even in the final quarter, when Bagatskis gave his key players rests, Rice played Jena’s defense dizzy with his passes – Cliff Alexander (15 points) exploited that with strong slam-dunks as Bamberg also took the last period by the clear margin of 24:14.

Ainars Bagatskis commented: “Jena has a lot of experienced players, but we prepared well for the duels. We managed to switch from attack to defense well today. The difference in the second half was that we found our rhythm. Jena no longer scored as well in the second half, whereas we drained our shots. That and the quality of our bench made the difference.”