Brose Bamberg strolls to victory over bogey team Vechta

Brose Bamberg has qualified for the playoffs in the Final Tournament of the easyCredit German Basketball League thanks to a comfortable 100:82 win over RASTA Vechta. The team of Head Coach Roel Moors has therefore finished third in the table and will meet the runners-up in Group A, EWE Baskets Oldenburg, which made the other teams sit up and take notice with its victory over reigning champions FC Bayern on Sunday.

In the past two years, Brose Bamberg has lost six of its eight games against RASTA Vechta: The club from Lower Saxony also won both games this season and so had become somewhat of a bogey team for Bamberg. But in the final encounter of the group stage in the Final Tournament, Moors’ side did not let the game slip out of its grasp and defended with great fight straight from the tip-off. In particular, Tre McLean (5 points) dictated play in offense, making a bucket from downtown, two free throws and two great passes to Christian Sengfelder and Jordan Crawford, before he unfortunately suffered a knock on the knee after four minutes and had to retire through injury. Yet that did not disconcert the club from Upper Franconia and, after it had streaked into a 7:0 lead, it extended the gap to 18:8 and then 32:19 by the end of the period. One key aspect: Bamberg’s shooting from beyond the arc had been a weakness in its first two games, but now it posted a high 3-point field goal percentage, draining eight out of 14 attempts in the first half. Christian Sengfelder, who chalked up 11 of his 18 points in the first two periods and scored off all his five shots, played an outstanding part in helping his team go in at the break 58:40 ahead.

Given his team’s clear lead, Roel Moors again spread out his players’ time on court well and gave his young talents Moritz Plescher, Marvin Heckel (5 points) and Mateo Seric (6 points) a good run-out. Vechta, who only had a decimated squad of nine men to call on, fought fiercely to seize its last chance to qualify for the playoffs and reduced the deficit to 75:65 by the start of the fourth period. Moors brought Kameron Taylor (14 points) and Christian Sengfelder back on and they, together with Retin Obasohan and top scorer Jordan Crawford (23 points), added a lay-up and three to give their side the largest lead of the encounter (87:65). Bamberg was able to play out the final minutes with no great effort.

Roel Moors, Head Coach of Brose Bamberg, commented: “Although our starting position was a good one, we wanted to win this game at all costs so we could go into the quarter-finals with a good feeling. We played solidly for the most part. It’s never easy against Vechta, even when some of their players are injured. Two of our team – Harris and McLean – also had knocks and so only spent a few minutes on court. Both of them will be able to play on Thursday, so I didn’t want to take a risk. All in all, it was a decent game.”

Brose Bamberg now faces the first of its quarter-final tussles against EWE Baskets Oldenburg on Thursday (tip-off: 8:30 p.m.). Since the result of both games is aggregated, a draw is also possible on Thursday.

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