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medi bayreuth loses to Würzburg Baskets in Franconian derby after extra time

Würzburg, 03-17-2023

The Franconian derby between the Würzburg Baskets and medi bayreuth turned out to be a sober affair from the visitors' point of view.

Head Coach Mladen Drijencic seemed a bit dissatisfied at the beginning, because his team was quickly trailing 0:4 and there was the threat of a real false start in the Franconian derby. But then it was Otis Livingston II who hit a three-pointer to wake his team up. From then on, the ball flowed better for medi and after five minutes Nat Diallo not only managed to equalise the score at 9:9, but thanks to his successful additional free throw, medi bayreuth even took the lead for a short time. The home side quickly regained the lead, but Nat Diallo, who was in excellent form, was able to do something about it.

The second quarter continued to be exciting. At first, medi took the lead again, but then the mistakes in the Bayreuth ranks added up and when two unsportsmanlike fouls were added, the Würzburg team was able to pull away for the first time. However, the hosts did not act without mistakes either and brought medi back into the game. Head Coach Mladen Drijencic's team was more successful from the three-point line and sank three threes in a row, so that the deficit for our team was only three points at half-time.

The game continued to be intense after the half-time break. A total of seven lead changes were recorded in the third quarter, sometimes the Lower Franconians prevailed, sometimes medi tried to take over the game. However, neither of the two teams could really pull away.

The open exchange of blows, which had already developed throughout the entire game, reached its climax just 35 seconds before the end of the actual game when Otis Livingston II courageously sank a three-point shot and thus tied the game 78:78. In overtime, medi then ran out of steam a little, which resulted mainly in easy mistakes and ball losses. Würzburg fought hard for every ball in the extra minutes and were able to secure a 96:89 home victory, mainly thanks to Felix Hoffmann.

Mladen Drijencic: "Congratulations to Sasa on the hard-fought victory. In overtime, we let ourselves be a bit impressed by the atmosphere in the hall and the quality of our decisions deteriorated, which meant that offensively we didn't act the way we wanted to. On the other hand, Würzburg's captain played incredibly. I never dreamed that he would kill us from the three-point line like that. 60 percent three-point rate is really worth mentioning."

The next match for medi bayreuth is on the agenda on Friday, 24 March at 6:30 p.m. and this one is a special one, especially for Head Coach Mladen Drijencic, because his long-time team, the EWE Baskets Oldenburg, are guests in the Oberfrankenhalle on matchday 25.