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Bamberg

Champions League: Brose Bamberg lose out to favorites Jerusalem on the last shot

Bamberg, 11-14-2018

Brose Bamberg suffered a defeat in its home game against the leaders in Champions League Group C, Hapoel Jerusalem, by the narrow margin of 85:88. The team of the former NBA all-star Amar’e Stoudemire was that touch more clinical in crunch time and was able to win after trailing by 67:62 going into the final period.

Head Coach Ainars Bagatskis was able to call on all his players with the exception of Louis Olinde, although Bryce Taylor was not given any time on court despite being included in the squad for the third time in a row after being out through injury for a year. Like in the encounter against Gießen, the game promised to deliver a spectacle of attacking basketball: Jerusalem had won its previous game against Nymburk with 79 shots from the floor in 40 minutes, a new CL record; moreover, the Israeli club is by far the best in the rebounding department and has snapped up an average of 48 rebounds, 18 of them under the opposing basket. Bamberg robbed the visitors of that strength: Bagatskis’ team managed to remain even in the statistics, allowing Jerusalem to pick up “only” 12 offensive rebounds, from which it scored a meager 10 points. Since the home side forced Jerusalem to concede a number of turnovers in the first period, Patrick Heckmann, Elias Harris and Tyrese Rice were able to put their side 22:15 in front with a run of seven points without reply. Jerusalem reduced the deficit to 27:24 by the end of the period. Since Bamberg was itself too careless and lost possession seven times at the start of second period, the visitors quickly went 32:36 ahead. Top scorer Augustine Rubit (26 points) with seven points and Stevan Jelovac (20) produced a 9:0 run to make it 41:36 and Bamberg went in at half-time with a narrow 43:41 advantage.

Stevan Jelovac stretched Bamberg’s lead to 57:51 with two rare four-point plays (a third plus a bonus free throw after a foul), and Cliff Alexander added a slam-dunk to extend the gap to 67:60 shortly before the end of the quarter. After a bucket from downtown by Maurice Stuckey at the start of the final period (70:65), however, Arnoldas Kulboka fouled Amar’e Stoudemire under the basket and, to Bamberg’s dismay, an unsporting foul was called. NBA legend Stoudemire exploited the opportunity clinically, drained the two free throws, added a slam-dunk and so shifted the momentum toward the Israeli club. The visitors then produced a run of 11 points without reply in the space of three minutes to leave Bamberg trailing 70:76. Jerusalem then defended tightly and Bamberg had to fight hard to get shots in; moreover, it allowed some easy buckets in defense. Although Patrick Heckmann (8 points) and Augustine Rubit Bamberg reduced the gap to 83:86 with seconds remaining, the final shot of the game – an attempted three on the buzzer by Tyrese Rice (8 points) that would have taken the game into overtime –danced briefly on the hoop and decided not to drop.

Ainars Bagatskis commented: “We lost to a good team today. I say good and not better, because they weren’t better than us. We lost because we made too many small mistakes and Jerusalem was able to score easy points. It began in the first half when we conceded seven turnovers. We mustn’t let that happen. All the same, we were in close contention. We were successful in particular when we stuck to our plan, namely not to shoot hastily, but to play through our systems. I’m not saying they were luckier in the end; we lost our focus too often and so the game.”