Weak third period seals home defeat for medi Bayreuth against Ulm

medi Bayreuth was unfortunately not able to continue its winning streak at home in the Oberfrankenhalle on the 21st game day in the easyCredit German Basketball League. After its five recent wins in a row across all competitions, the HEROES OF TOMORROW lost to ratiopharm ulm by 69:85 (38:36) on Saturday evening and so have once more slipped a little out of contention for a playoff spot for the time being.

The game was decided at the start of the second half. After medi Bayreuth had gone in at the break with a narrow 38:36 advantage, the team of Head Coach Jaka Lakovic came back out with far greater aggression. Ulm perceptibly stepped up its intensity in defense, forcing the HEROES OF TOMORROW to make too many simple mistakes, which the visitors pounced on clinically to convert into easy points. Whereas medi Bayreuth conceded just a single turnover in the entire first half, that figure increased by a further six in the first six minutes of second half alone. That enabled Ulm to produce a 4:18 run and take a clear 42:54 advantage in the 26th minute. The visitors finally took the third period by 23:11 to lead 59:49 after 30 minutes. Of course, Bastian Doreth and his teammates did not give up. They tried all they could again, but somehow it seemed as if nothing wanted to come off on the night. Whereas Ulm notched up a fantastic two-point field goal percentage of more than 70, many shots by the HEROES OF TOMORROW unluckily failed to drop in some cases.

Raoul Korner, Head Coach of medi Bayreuth, commented: “It was an abysmal game of basketball in my eyes. Fortunately, Ulm played at our level in the first half, but then it got its act together with physical play in defense, which we unfortunately never managed to do. We threw the ball right to our opponent the first four times we had possession in the third period. Ulm dominated from then on, while we let our heads drop and weren’t able to find a solution. The break for the internationals doesn’t seem to have done us any good. We were never able to galvanize ourselves and we have to do that by Wednesday. We’ll also be without James Woodard on Wednesday. Other players need to step up to the plate now, just like we did in Würzburg. Now we have to rediscover the rhythm we’ve lost somewhere along the way – best of all by Wednesday.”

medi Bayreuth now faces the important first leg in its quarter-final in the FIBA Europe Cup playoffs. The team of captain Bastian Doreth travels to Romania, where it will come up against a club steeped in tradition, the newly crowned Romanian cup winners U-BT Cluj Napoca, in the BTarena on Wednesday, March 4 (tip-off: 7 p.m.).