Champions League: Brose Bamberg bows out with a win

Brose Bamberg ended its Champions League campaign with one of its best performances of the season, defeating Iberostar Tenerife, who was top of Group C going into the game, by 98:96 after overtime. Despite having the same number of wins and losses (seven), Bamberg failed to advance beyond the group stage, but was at least able to notch up a notable victory against last year’s runners-up and knock the Spanish club out of top spot.

Yet that did not look on the cards in the first eight minutes: Bamberg was certain of being eliminated from the competition before the encounter and so Head Coach Roel Moors wanted to try out new variants in defense, as well as rest Elias Harris after his excellent displays in recent games. Since the club from the Canary Islands wanted to win the group and so have a better starting position in the playoffs, it got cracking after Bamberg took a quick 4:0 lead: Three attacks in the space of 60 seconds and points on all of them left Bamberg trailing 4:7, after which the visitors opened up a 13:22 advantage shortly before the end of the first period.

Retin Obasohan’s energetic lay-up after he stormed through the whole defense single-handedly injected a lot of confidence into Bamberg and that helped sustain the home side for almost the entire encounter. Obasohan and Tré McLean added further lay-ups to close the gap to 20:22, but Tenerife hit back right away with a bucket from downtown (20:25).

Then Assem Marei and Kameron Taylor turned on the heat alongside Obasohan: Marei boarded up the basket, did not permit any easy shots and snapped up the rebounds. Taylor and Obasohan scored at will to help Bamberg produce an outstanding run of 14 points without reply and surge 34:25 in front. However, Tenerife reduced the deficit slightly to 38:34 at half-time.

Bamberg withstood the visitors’ greater pressure for four minutes after the break and held on to a five- to seven-point advantage. Yet the visitors caught up and the lead changed hands seven times, before Kameron Taylor (16 points) made three free throws to put his side 62:59 ahead after the third period. Tenerife got to within one point midway through the final quarter (69:70), but then Bamberg pulled four in front (85:81) thanks to Assem Marei (18 points) and the outstanding top scorer Retin Obasohan (22 points, 7 assists). However, Bamberg squandered its lead despite there being just 17 seconds left on the clock, allowing the visitors to drain two threes and tie the score at 87:87.

Tenerife exploited its psychological advantage mercilessly in overtime, despite Marei’s lay-up to make it 89:87, scoring on four successive attacks to leave Bamberg straggling by 90:96 with 86 seconds remaining. Yet the home side refused to give up: Christian Sengfelder snapped up an offensive rebound and cut the gap to 92:96 with a lay-up. Louis Olinde defended strongly on the visitors’ next attack and forced Tenerife to concede an offensive foul, while Christian Sengfelder drained a bucket from beyond the arc at the other end to make it 95:96. Tenerife let the 24-second clock run down, but its shot with eleven seconds to go missed the mark. Tré McLean picked up the rebound, played a long pass to Christian Sengfelder (17 points), who produced a body feint and drained his open three to give Bamberg a two-point lead. Tenerife’s last shot was off target thanks to strong defending by Bamberg, who therefore picked up a home win that had no impact on the group standings, but was incredibly important psychologically.

Brose Bamberg’s Head Coach Roel Moors commented: “Of course, I’m very happy about this victory. I’m especially delighted that we had in Chris a player who was mentally on top of his game in crunch time and made two important threes. But unfortunately, we had to win the game twice. At this level it’s unacceptable to make the mistakes we did in the crucial spell in regular time. This time we were lucky and dug ourselves out of the hole, even though our prime focus was not on the result. Of course, we wanted to win and turn in a good display. I think we did that, even though there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

Brose Bamberg now travels to Rasta Vechta on Saturday, February 8, 2020, for a game that tips off at 6 p.m. Moors’ team needs to win against the sixth-placed club from Lower Saxony, which is level on points with eighth-placed Bamberg, so as to avoid slipping out of a playoff spot again.

For more information visit www.brosebamberg.de, www.easycredit-bbl.de and http://www.championsleague.basketball/de.