Coburg loses 85:103 to top favorites in Koblenz

The longest away journey in the BARMER ProB South 2nd German Basketball League was even longer coming back: After a weak second half, BBC Coburg had to travel the 340 kilometers back home after suffering an 85:103 (44:39) defeat at the hands of top favorites EPG Baskets Koblenz.

Coburg was visibly nervous in front of the crowd in the Karthause Sports center: It missed all of its first four shots, after which Mateo Šerić broke the spell with a three-point play. The forward then added a three from the corner to tie the scores at 6:6 in the 4th minute. The home side piled on the pressure on its debut in the ProB division, but the BBC kept in touch: Youngster Elias Baggette made it 15:18 in the 7th minute with a plucky drive, and a short time later Moritz Plescher put his side 20:19 in front with a bucket from downtown on a fast break. Nevertheless, Koblenz managed to finish the first period with a 22:20 advantage.

Sven Lorber then put Coburg back ahead with a three-pointer (27:24 in the 12th minute). Constantin Ebert was not to be outdone: He drained two shots from outside to build a small cushion for his side for the first time (37:31 in the 15th minute). However, the club from Upper Franconia allowed the home side to score at the second bite of the cherry all too often: Koblenz snapped up a total of nine offensive rebounds in the first two periods, which was compounded by the fact that the BBC conceded nine turnovers. Despite these weaknesses, Coburg took a deserved 44:39 lead in at half-time.

The strong Šerić kept Coburg’s engine ticking over smoothly in offense in the opening spell of the second half. However, the forward picked up his fourth personal foul after just two-and-a-half minutes and was taken off for the time being. Koblenz capitalized on that and pulled away: Marley Jean-Louis and Daryl Woodmore left Coburg trailing by 49:61 in the 25th minute. The young Coburg side now had difficulty in matching the experienced home side and went into the final quarter 64:76 behind.

Timo Dippold reduced the deficit to ten points with a bucket from beyond the arc at the start of the fourth quarter, then Daniel Urbano came into his own: The forward notched up nine points in a row – all assisted by Baggette – to close the gap to 83:90 with three minutes left. Yet Koblenz was more clinical, tussled fiercely for every offensive rebound and so gained second opportunities to score. The home side ended the encounter with a run of 11 points without reply to chalk up its first-ever win in the ProB league on its debut in the competition.

“We weren’t able to recover from the runs in the third period, when we conceded 37 points. The game showed us what we need to work on,” stated the BBC’s Head Coach Valentino Lott afterwards. “You often rely on your big players to snap up the offensive rebounds, but the top rebounder in the entire game was a guard – we as a team have to do a better job in department as a whole.”

The BBC is now fully focused on its first home game of the season this week against TSV Oberhaching Tropics. Information on how many spectators will be admitted and more details are expected in the course of the week.