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Braunschweig / Bamberg

Brose Bamberg stroll to two victories on the long weekend

Braunschweig / Bamberg, 10-03-2016

Brose Bamberg chalked up clear-cut wins on the long weekend. The German champions narrowly failed to break a league record on the road in Braunschweig on Friday evening. The team of Head Coach Andrea Trinchieri defeated the Lions 96:48 in their own “cage,” but fell just ten points short of achieving the highest away win in the history of the German Basketball League. The league leaders were also able to tame Walter Tigers Tübingen quickly, getting off to a lightning 17:0 start and strolling to an 85:45 victory in the Brose Arena.

A one-sided encounter – that was an understatement as regards Bamberg’s game on the road against Braunschweig from Lower Saxony. As preparation for the big challenge facing the club in the Euroleague that gets underway on October 14, Trinchieri tried out many combinations of players, but also demanded one thing of his players: 40 minutes of concentration, 40 minutes without easing up and above all 40 minutes of tough defense. Bamberg soon took a double-digit lead and extended it continuously. Leading by 22:10 and then 36:18, the visitors went in at half-time 47:25 ahead. Things became even more depressing for Braunschweig after the break. Bamberg strung together a 29:0 run straddling the two periods to surge ahead by 79:30. With three minutes to go, top scorer Darius Miller scored a slam dunk to put his side 93:40 in front. However, Trinchieri’s team did not chase the 16-year-old record set by Leverkusen at the MBC (108:51). Instead, the Head Coach put on a very young formation with the talents Leon Kratzer and Louis Olinde in the final minutes. The opponents from Lower Saxony “reduced” the deficit to 96:48 by the end.

In the home game against Tübingen, Trinchieri left out old-hand Nikos Zisis, who had fallen awkwardly on his foot in Braunschweig. He was replaced Aleksej Nikolic making his comeback after recovering from an ankle injury, while the German international Maodo Lo also made his German league debut. And the two young playmakers did a very decent job. The Slovenian Nikolic, the game’s top scorer together with Darius Miller, impressed with a good eye for his teammates, and his lay-ups and two great passes helped his side produce a lightning start to lead 17:0. And Maodo Lo, who was mainly given a run-out in the second half, drove very quickly to the basket on a number of occasions, won many free throws and notched up six points. After leading 29:7 in the first period, Bamberg let its grip slacken a little up to the break (47:24). From the third period on, Bamberg stepped up its intensity in defense and ran out comfortable and deserved winners by a wide margin.

Andrea Trinchieri commented: “This weekend we played the way we had resolved to. We defended well, especially when the other side built its attacks, and if you do that, everything else is easier. We played a large rotation, used all our players and were aggressive in what we did. We got off to a good start against Tübingen, but lost the thread in the second period. We again showed a different face in the second half. I’m very happy about the performance of Ali Nikolic, who turned in a really good game against Tübingen. As a team, we’re now where we would want to be at this stage, but we need to improve for the tasks ahead of us.”

Brose Bamberg now faces a local derby against s.oliver Baskets Würzburg in the easyCredit German Basketball League on Friday, October 7, 2016 (tip-off: 7 p.m.) Würzburg, Bamberg’s quarter-final opponent in the playoffs four months ago, is already under pressure after three losses.