Champions League: Brose Bamberg loses on Tenerife

After four victories in a row in the Champions League, Brose Bamberg suffered defeat on the final game day of first half of the group stage, losing on the road at Iberostar Tenerife by 64:82. As a result, the Spanish club is the only team to remain unbeaten in the Champions League. The home side capitalized on two weak spells by the team of Head Coach Roel Moors to pull ahead and win.

Brose got off to a good start: In particular Christian Sengfelder, who ended the encounter as top scorer with 20 points, was unstoppable in the first period and contributed nine points to help Bamberg move 15:14 ahead. After Paris Lee drained his second bucket from downtown and Mateo Seric notched up the first international points of his young career, Bamberg took the first quarter by 19:17. After Lee’s third three to put the visitors 24:20 ahead, the game turned into a defensive battle on both sides. Whereas Bamberg went six minutes without scoring, top-of-the-table Tenerife was “only” able to equalize (24:24). However, Bamberg’s defense was not on top of its game in the final 40 seconds of the period and two threes by the home side gave it a 30:37 advantage at half-time.

And after the break Tenerife picked up where it had left off, extending the lead to 30:40. Despite buckets by Sengfelder and Lee (14 points), the home side constantly maintained the ten-point gap up to the end of the quarter. Tenerife even extended that to 15 (49:64) at the start of the final period. Bamberg fought its way back into contention thanks to a bucket from outside by Retin Obasohan and two slam-dunks by Tre McLean and even had the chance to reduce the deficit further with the score at 60:69. However, Sengfelder’s lay-up and also the three after an offensive rebound hit the hoop and bounced out. The Spanish club struck back right away, recovered its strong shooting form, added eight points on three attacks after failing to score for three minutes and pulled 77:62 in front. Bamberg was then no longer able to catch up in the last two minutes.

Brose Bamberg’s Head Coach Roel Moors commented: “I can’t fault my team for the way it played in the first 19 minutes. But then we didn’t pay attention for one minute and Tenerife promptly went seven points ahead by the break. After that, we were always playing catch-up. We made a few wrong decisions in offense and were too slow in defense a number of times. However, there were also some positives: We distributed the ball well and carved out good chances. Tenerife is already where we want to be. It plays controlled basketball at both ends and is rightly top of the table.”

Brose Bamberg does not have a game in the German league this weekend. Moors’ team faces its first game in the second half of the group stage at home against ERA Nymburg next Tuesday, December 10, 2019.

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