medi bayreuth chalks up 5th straight win

The spectacular soaring fortunes of medi bayreuth in the easyCredit German Basketball League continued on the 6th matchday. The team of Head Coach Raoul Korner notched up a commanding 100:82 victory away at GIESSEN 46ers on Saturday evening to extend its current string of wins to five in a row. That is the best start to a German league season since the club regained promotion in 2010.

medi operated with great focus and determination from the outset and demonstrated its strength and cohesion to the 3,157 spectators, who were audibly shocked pretty early on by this display, in the Sporthalle Ost. Seven Heroes Of Tomorrow ended up with a double-digit haul – an indication of the team’s unity on the score sheet.

Lightning start quickly puts home side in its place

The Heroes Of Tomorrow were again able to capture a start-to-finish win, laying the foundations for victory in Gießen in the opening minutes. medi bayreuth quickly led by 6:0 in the 3rd minute thanks to three buckets by Andreas Seiferth. It took the 46ers almost three minutes to get off the mark. medi was unimpressed and kept on adding to its tally. De’Mon Brooks first stretched the gap to 13:6 in the 6th minute and then his team took a double-digit lead for the first time (18:7 in the 8th minute).

Bayreuth continued to drive resolutely to Gießen’s basket in the second period. Assem Marei and Trey Lewis (with five straight points) extended the lead to 27:11 in the 12th minute, forcing the 46ers to call a timeout. Back on court, Robin Amaize then displayed his abilities in his home city: A bucket from beyond the arc and a difficult mid-range shot made it 34:13 for the club from Upper Franconia in the 15th minute. His side stretched that lead further. Trey Lewis made it 46:22 in the 18th minute and Andreas Seiferth brought up points 49 and 50 from the foul line in a first half that went to the Heroes Of Tomorrow by the clear margin of 50:27.

Gießen’s resistance comes too late

The third period began like the first two: Bayreuth got off to a lightning start and Gießen could not get into its stride. Although the home side’s feared shots from downtown now started dropping, the club from Hesse was not able to reduce the deficit significantly. Easy steals meant that medi was repeatedly able to put easy points on the board, while Trey Lewis drained a three to make it 63:39 in the 26th minute. Doreth, Linhart and Co. only conceded three buckets (including two threes) up to the end of the period and so the gap after 30 minutes was 24 points (71:47).

It was not until the final quarter that the home side snapped into action. It stepped up its intensity in defense and the buckets from outside also started to drop. Cameron Wells and Skyler Bowlin reduced the deficit to 58:74 by the 32rd minute with three buckets from beyond the arc. Yet when the momentum threatened to tip, Steve Wachalski stepped up to the plate. The old-hand put his side back on top with two threes in the space of 40 seconds. Bayreuth’s oldest player did not miss a shot after that and repulsed Gießen’s comeback almost single-handedly.

Although the home side reduced the gap to 80:93 in the 39th minute with a three from Marco Völler, Bayreuth’s victory was never in doubt. medi had a lot of space on court at the death and with three seconds left on the clock Nate Linhart finished a fast break to bring up his side’s first hundred-point game of the season and seal its third successive win on the road.