Brose Bamberg wins commandingly on the road in Frankfurt

In the past two years, Bamberg has suffered two defeats at Fraport Skyliners, but this time the new team under Head Coach Roel Moors strolled to victory on the road at the club from Hesse. After a close first period, Bamberg tightened up its defense significantly and so laid the foundation for a clear 87:72 victory.

The only time the visitors trailed in chalking up their fifth away win in the German league this season was by 0:2 at the beginning. In particular youngster Nelson Weidemann got off to a good start: The 20-year-old drained two buckets from downtown in the first five minutes to help put Bamberg 15:9 in front. However, the home side matched the high 3-point field goal percentage of Moors’ side (both teams made five out of seven) and so Bamberg was just 23:22 ahead at the end of the period. In the second quarter, the visitors were able to increase their intensity in defense and so on several occasions Frankfurt was not able to get a shot away in attack within the required 24 seconds. Thanks to top scorer Tre McLean, who made 13 of his 16 points in the second period, Bamberg stretched the gap from 34:24 to 47:31, but the home side hit back with two lay-ups to reduce the deficit to 47:35 at half-time.

Bamberg also got off to a good start after the break: Assem Marei (11 points) and once more Nelson Weidemann (13) gave their side an almost 20-point advantage (62:44) shortly before the end of the quarter. However, Christian Sengfelder (10 points) was bulldozed out of the way with a foul while attempting a lay-up – yet it was not called and so no free throws ensued. Bamberg suffered lapses in concentration on the subsequent attacks and so the home side was able to catch up a little by the end of the quarter (66:56). However, Head Coach Moors found the right words between the periods: Bamberg responded with a run of seven points without reply thanks to a slam-dunk by Olinde, free throws by Obasohan and a three by McLean. Frankfurt’s timeout did not bear fruit and Olinde (8 points) and Christian Sengfelder drained two buckets from outside to make it 83:63 and seal victory. Mateo Seric from the ProB farm team from Baunach was allowed to make his debut in the German league in the final minutes and snapped up a respectable four rebounds in his 150 seconds on court.

Brose Bamberg’s Head Coach Roel Moors commented: “We showed Frankfurt the right degree of respect. After a difficult first period, we were able to turn the game around in the second. A key factor in that was our physical defending over the 40 minutes. We did a good job against Lamont Jones and Leon Kratzer, and in the third period we played really good basketball and moved the ball very well. We then relaxed a little too much and let Frankfurt score easy points. Frankfurt is a team that’s extremely strong mentally. It never gives up.”

Brose Bamberg now faces its Franconian first-division rival s.Oliver Würzburg in the Brose Arena on Tuesday evening (tip-off: 7 p.m.).

Further information can be found under www.brosebamberg.de, www.easycredit-bbl.de und http://www.championsleague.basketball/de.