Comebacks and a hard-fought victory: Coburg wins 96:84 in Oberhaching

Two comebacks and a win – Saturday evening could hardly have gone better for BBC Coburg in the BARMER ProB South 2nd German Basketball League. Apart from the hard-fought 96:84 (43:39) victory over TSV Oberhaching Tropics, the BBC also celebrated the return of captain Christopher Wolf and Princeton Onwas.

The two key players not only returned to the squad, but were also in the starting five. That gave Coburg an immediate boost: Wolf put his side 11:6 ahead in the 4th minute with a three-point play. The marksmen then found their range: Buckets from outside by Constantin Ebert and Tidjan Keita, followed by two more from Sven Lorber, in the space of three minutes allowed the BBC to surge 27:10 in front after six minutes and forced the home side to call a timeout. The Tropics’ Head Coach Mario Matic adapted his team better to the visitors and so Oberhaching was able to reduce the deficit to 23:32 by the end of the first period.

Coburg had now lost the thread: It lacked pace in offense and was not tight enough at the back. The logical consequence: The home side closed the gap further and further and even snatched the lead briefly (36:37 in the 17th minute). The strong Ebert then went down the other end right away to drain a bucket from beyond the arc and lay the foundation for his side to go in at the break with a 43:39 advantage.

Coburg’s Head Coach Ulf Schabacker impressed on his players in the dressing room that they had to step up their performance in the second half if they wanted to win. And suddenly the visitors had regained their focus: Keita opened the second half with a three-point play and then stretched the gap to 48:39 in the 22nd minute from the foul line. Yet that was needed, since Oberhaching kept in contention and refused to be shaken off.

However, the BBC was now more focused, kept on finding a reply to the Tropics’ efforts, and were also not shocked by the fact that they equalized (61:61 in the 29th minute). Lorber and Ebert hit back with two threes, giving Coburg a 67:63 lead going into the final quarter.

And Coburg again got off to a good start to the period: Keita (who turned in a blemish-free performance in offense and chalked up his 22 points from eight buckets out of eight attempts from the floor and three free throws), Ebert and Daniel Urbano each added a three-pointer in the space of a minute to extend to lead to 76:63 in the 32nd minute. And when youngster Jevon Perschnick made it 78:63 with a lay-up, Coburg was already on the road to victory.

Yet Oberhaching refused to concede defeat: Spurred on by Omari Knox, the Tropics kept on irritating their opponent, ensuring that the BBC was never able to be all too sure of victory at any stage. It was not until Ebert drained his sixth three of the game to make it 89:79 with two-and-a-half minutes remaining and then Onwas stretched the gap to 94:80 with a slam-dunk a minute later that Coburg secured its first win after four straight defeats.

“It’s not easy to win in Oberhaching. The standard of play wasn’t always top-class, but a lot was at stake for both teams. We stood firm and the team deserves respect for that,” said a pleased Schabacker afterwards. Two players were singled out for extra praise: “Princeton Onwas played for his team in the second half, even though he didn’t have his best scoring day. And Jevon Perschnick was a big help in defense against Knox in the final period.”

The away game in Munich’s suburbs is now followed by the final tussle in the regular season against FC Bayern Munich this Saturday – and then, for the first time in the club’s history, the playoffs!