s.Oliver Würzburg loses 94:95 after overtime at ratiopharm Ulm

The 6,200 spectators in the sold-out ratiopharm arena saw an intense, high-class and evenly-matched encounter between the seventh- and eighth-placed teams in the easyCredit German Basketball League where no team was able to carve out a crucial advantage over the entire 40 minutes. The lead changed hands four times in the first period, until the visitors from Lower Franconia produced a run of 10 points without reply in the final two-and-a-half minutes to build a lead of seven. Jordan Hulls drained a jump shot as the clock ran down at the end of the first quarter to make it 16:23 – one of many buzzer beaters in this spectacular game.

The later matchwinner Ismet Akpinar opened the second period with a bucket from beyond the arc to make it 19:23, yet the visitors were still seven ahead after 14 minutes (26:33). That changed before half-time: Ulm produced its strongest spell in offense in the final six minutes of the second quarter and was able to take a narrow 48:44 lead in at the break. The game of short runs continued after the two sides came back out – first Ulm opened up a seven-point gap thanks to a three by Ryan Thompson (51:44 in the 31st minute), then it was the visitors who were able to snatch the lead back again by the end of the third period when Cameron Wells made a lay-up, once again on the buzzer (66:69).

The last three minutes of regular time were then drama-packed. Ulm benefited from the fact that s.Oliver Würzburg twice failed to seal victory when it was leading by five points in crunch time. “We’ve only ourselves to blame for this defeat,” said Jordan Hulls afterwards: “We had enough chances to decide the encounter in our favor.” The game ended with four successive 5:0 runs: Würzburg twice opened up a gap (75:80 and 80:85), but the club from Swabia struck back twice – at the end with a spectacular buzzer-beating three-pointer by Ismet Akpinar from over ten meters out. The home side seized the chance to take the game into overtime by forcing a turnover from an in-bounds pass by Würzburg in Ulm’s half with 3.7 seconds left on the clock.

In overtime, too, s.Oliver Würzburg was 91:94 ahead after a three by Cameron Wells with 37 seconds to go, but was not able to reap the rewards for a strong performance. After a timeout called by his Head Coach Thorsten Leibenath, Ismet Akpinar made a difficult lay-up – 93:94 with 20 seconds left. An intercepted in-bounds pass meant Ulm regained possession right away: Gabriel Olaseni first blocked the next attempt by the German international and then, in the subsequent tussle for the ball, the referees called a foul against Olaseni and awarded two free throws to Akpinar, who drained both to put the final points on the board with 1.3 seconds on the clock.

Denis Wucherer, Head Coach of s.Oliver Würzburg, commented:

“Over the past years I’ve heard referees say countless times that they don’t want to end up deciding a game. With just under two seconds left in overtime today, they called a foul where none of the 6,200 spectators in the arena would have noticed if it hadn’t been given. So I’m naturally hugely disappointed about that call and the fact that it robbed us of the chance of victory.”