Victory and defeat for Brose Bamberg in the Actic Cup

Brose Bamberg blew hot and cold in the Actic Cup in Bayreuth: It began the warm-up tournament with a 83:92 loss to the eventual winners MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, but then the team of Head Coach Roel Moors strolled to a clear 97:56 win against hosts medi Bayreuth in the third place playoff.

Bamberg found the going tough against a strong Ludwigsburg team. The club from Swabia defended intensely and so hindered successful combinations in offense by Bamberg, whose attacks in the first half were rather piecemeal and mainly solo efforts. Playmaker Paris Lee often ran up against stiff resistance from Ludwigsburg’s defensive ranks. Nevertheless, Elias Harris and Christian Sengfelder produced a good display up front: The two Germans scored 12 and 13 points respectively and so prevented their side from falling even further behind. The two teams went in at the break with the score at 42:57 – and a striking aspect was that, apart from Harris and Sengfelder, only Nielson Weidemann, Mateo Seric and Louis Olinde scored, meaning 38 out of Bamberg’s 42 points came from German players. At least Kameron Taylor (13 points) woke up after the break. Bamberg produced a run of 11 points without reply thanks to top scorers Elias Harris (23 points) and Christian Sengfelder (17) to tie the encounter midway through the fourth period, but Ludwigsburg was not to be denied victory.

Following their weak performance against Ludwigsburg, the key non-German players were determined to show what they could do in the third place playoff against medi Bayreuth: Paris Lee drained two buckets from downtown in the opening minutes, while Kameron Taylor added another from outside. And Christian Sengfelder reliably made three lay-ups with his customary consistency, with the result that Bamberg surged 18:8 ahead. Yet Bayreuth put up stiff resistance and produced a 0:11 run to take a one-point lead. Trailing by 27:29, Bamberg managed to wrest control of the game again midway through the second period and then literally dismantled injury-weakened Bayreuth, conjuring up a 20:5 run up to half-time. Brose’s skillful defending meant it conceded a meager nine points in the second and third quarters. In particular, new signing Assem Marai was impressive in attack: The former Bayreuth player only took few shots himself and finished with a haul of just 7 points, but the center repeatedly distributed clever passes from the paint to free-standing long-range shooters and finished with eight assists and eleven rebounds. Five Bamberg players got into double digits in the comfortable 97:56 win: Christian Sengfelder (18 points), who has proven to be the most consistent and strongest Bamberg player in the warm-ups, Kameron Taylor (12) and Paris Lee, Louis Olinde and Mateo Seric (10 each). The last two are also positive surprises in the pre-season preparations: Olinde is brimming with confidence, in particular thanks to his spell the in NBA Summer League. And Mateo Seric from Baunach also showed what a talent he is with his 12 points against Ludwigsburg.

Brose Bamberg’s Head Coach Roel Moors commented: “We have the tendency to start too softly against physically strong teams. That’s exactly what happened against Ludwigsburg, and we didn’t show any team spirit. I’m still pondering why that is. The game against Bayreuth was much better. We produced a good display in defense of the sort I want to see. And if your defense is good, that’s usually the platform for a good showing in offense. The weekend demonstrated that we can be good if we’re willing to work hard for that.”

The team of Roel Moors will have a non-public test game against league rivals MBC on Wednesday, September 18, 2019, before embarking on Bamberg’s 50th year in the top German flight with a game on the road at medi Bayreuth on September 24.