Medi Bayreuth maintains its winning streak by defeating Gießen 95:90

There is simply no stopping medi Bayreuth at the moment. The club picked up its ninth win in a row across all competitions in its final away game of 2018. The team of Head Coach Raoul Korner won on the road at GIESSEN 46ers by 95:90 (51:43) on the 11th matchday of the easyCredit German Basketball League on Saturday evening and captured its seventh domestic league victory of the season thanks to an extremely strong all-round team performance.

A game that did not seem to really flow ensured in the first period. The crowd saw a pretty scrappy start, with a lot of missed shots and turnovers. However, Bayreuth made the more stable overall impression and so led from the start. Its lead after the first period was five points, mainly thanks to a fine display by David Stockton.

The shooting percentages improved and the number of turnovers dropped in the second quarter as both teams traded blows in an end-to-end encounter, but medi Bayreuth always managed keep slightly ahead. Every attempt by Gießen to turn the game around was countered by Bayreuth in the commanding fashion expected of a playoff candidate. Led on by captain Bastian Doreth and his fellow German international Andreas Seiferth, the visitors even extended their lead slightly to 51:43 by half-time.

Yet the 46ers showed in the second half that they are rightly in a playoff berth this season. Although Raoul Korner’s team got off to a good start to the third period, pulling 64:50 ahead in the 24th minute, a magnificent John Bryant helped his team draw closer and closer to Bayreuth. A hugely important three by Bastian Doreth shortly before the end of the period enabled Bayreuth to retain a narrow 73:69 lead going into the final ten minutes.

It seemed that medi Bayreuth had steadied itself a little at the start of the final period and it was able to open up a nine-point gap again with wonderfully carved-out shots. However, after Ingo Freyer called a timeout, not much clicked for Bayreuth. Gießen caught up point by point and even went ahead for the first time through John Bryant with two minutes to go. Now Raoul Korner called a timeout in the hope that his team would recapture the momentum. And so it did: David Stockton and Kassius Robertson produced big plays in offense, while better rebounding and again more intense defending ensured that medi Bayreuth was able to chalk up a deserved away win in the easyCredit German Basketball League. It was finally Gregor Hrovat who added a free throw to make the final score 95:90.

Source: www.medi-bayreuth.de