Brose Bamberg wins its second test game

Brose Bamberg has won its second test game of the season. The German champions defeated the Austrian first-division club Basket Swans Gmunden on the road by 59:81. The visitors’ top scorers were Fabien Causeur and Darius Miller with twelve points apiece.

Fabien Causeur, Nicolò Melli, Lucca Staiger, Darius Miller and Leon Kratzer were the players who Andrea Trinchieri picked as his starting five in the second test game. And it was the youngster Kratzer who justified his choice by scoring in the opening minutes. Miller and Causeur also added buckets. However, Brose’s defending was not ideal, with the result that the scores were tied at 7:7 midway through the first period. A three by Nikos Zisis, a half-distance shot from Nicolò Melli and another bucket from outside by Strelnieks helped the visitors move ahead again (11:19 in the 8th minute). Brose lead by nine points at the end of the period (14:23).

In the second quarter, it took Brose almost two-and-half minutes to get off the mark, when Elias Harris added two free throws to make it 16:25. Shortly after that, Janis Strelnieks drained his second three, but Bamberg continued to have problems in defense and especially with Gmunden’s shots from beyond the arc and so was not really able to pull away (24:29 in the 15th minute). Olinde, Nikolic and Melli then produced a run of 6 points without reply a minute before half-time and give their side a double-digit lead for the first time: 28:38. Miller added another bucket from outside and Nikolic completed a three-point play just before the break. The two teams went in at half-time with the score at 30:44. Bamberg’s top scorers up to then were Fabien Causeur with nine and Janis Strelnieks with eight points.

Darius Miller opened the scoring in the third period and Melli followed suit (30:48 in the 22nd minute). Shortly afterwards, it was again Miller who gave his side its first twenty-point lead and ran into top form, adding a bucket from beyond the arc (32:53 in the 24th minute). Midway through the quarter, Brose’s lead was 25 points after a lay-up by Elias Harris to make it 36:61. The German champions were now more solid in defense and hardly gave the other side any opportunity to take easy, open shots. After 30 minutes, Bamberg’s lead was more than 25 points (44:70).

Ali Nikolic then added a three after two-and-a-half minutes of the final period to stretch the lead to 30 points (46:76). Gmunden summoned up all it could in its first pre-season game and managed to close the gap a little thanks to some successful finishing. The score midway through the quarter was 53:76. The eight-times German champs finally ran out winners by 59:81 against the four-times Austrian champions. Right after the game, the team set off for Folgaria, where it will hold its pre-season training camp from tomorrow to Friday. That will be following by a tournament in Trento at the weekend, before it starts back to Bamberg on Sunday night.