HEROES OF TOMORROW win Franconian derby

medi Bayreuth took a step closer to the playoff spots with an outstanding performance on the 19th game day of the easyCredit German Basketball League. The team of Head Coach Raoul Korner won the Franconian derby on the road at s.Oliver Würzburg on Wednesday evening by 85:66 (35:33) to capture its ninth victory of the season and close the gap to its eighth-placed rival from Lower Franconia to one win.

The HEROES OF TOMORROW produced an extremely passionate display in front of 2,977 spectators in the well-filled s.Oliver Arena and conceded no more than 17 points in each of the four periods to lay the foundation under its own basket for a deserved and impressive victory in which Lukas Meisner (22 points) and Bastian Doreth (17) set new career bests.

Lukas Meisner from medi Bayreuth commented: “It was a gigantic fighting performance by the team. We all displayed great heart and all knew we had to step up a gear because James Woodard was missing – and we did just that. It was a very important win in the battle for the playoffs.”

medi Bayreuth went into the encounter excellently prepared. Knowing it had to compensate for the absence of Joanic Grüttner Bacoul (due to a foot injury) and James Woodard (a bereavement in the family), medi ticked over at top speed from the very first second. Led on by Bastian Doreth, the HEROES OF TOMORROW skillfully controlled the pace of the game, passing the ball patiently in attack until space for the best-possible shot had been created. Their outstanding 3-point field goal percentage – eight out of 12 attempts – up to the break is testimony to that. And Head Coach Raoul Korner’s players were also solid in defense. Although they squandered pretty easy options directly under the basket at the start of the encounter, they had that weakness under control in the second quarter at the latest and so always had a narrow lead up to the break.

Yet Würzburg kept in contention and even briefly snatched the lead again. With the score standing at 40:40 in the 24th minute, however, medi added seven points without reply, rounded out by a thunderous slam-dunk by Reid Travis that forced Würzburg’s Head Coach Denis Wucherer to call a timeout. The rival from Lower Franconia again staged a comeback, but then James Robinson stepped up to the plate. With the score at 52:46, the point guard added ten straight points in the space of just 109 seconds almost single-handedly to give medi Bayreuth its first double-digit lead (62:50 in the 32nd minute).

And since the HEROES OF TOMORROW refused to be perturbed by the atmosphere in the arena or a number of controversial decisions by the referees, there was the clear sense that Bastian Doreth and his teammates would no longer let victory slip from their grasp. Their confidence grew with every successful sequence in defense and, at the other end, they promptly exploited their chances with clinical finishing.

In front of a large contingent of their fans, the HEROES OF TOMORROW ran out highly deserved winners in the derby, in which six Bayreuth players notched up a double-digit efficiency rating.

The upcoming break for internationals means the HEROES OF TOMORROW now have five days of rest and leisure before they begin preparing next week for the game against Ulm in the Oberfrankenhalle on Saturday, February 29 (tip-off: 6 p.m.).

Source: www.medi-bayreuth.de