s.Oliver Würzburg defeats Bremerhaven Polar Bears on the road by 87:85

s.Oliver Würzburg is back to winning ways and has captured an important victory on the road on the 10th matchday of the easyCredit German Basketball League. The team of Head Coach Denis Wucherer was able to run out winners by 87:85 (49:40) at Bremerhaven Polar Bears on Sunday after a thrilling ending.

After a nervous start with few successful actions in offense by either team, it was Perry Ellis who, with the scores standing at 6:4, drained a bucket from outside to spark a 10:0 run by Würzburg. s.Oliver Würzburg was able to hold on to its early 6:14 lead up to the end of the period (17:24). The home side then got better into the game at the start of the second quarter, but was no longer able to take the lead a single time up to the end of the encounter. That was because whenever the Polar Bears produced a spurt and closed the gap, Würzburg was able to strike back right away and move further in front again – for example in the 24th minute when Jordan Brangers reduced the deficit to 26:28 with a three, but Florian Koch when down the other end to likewise score from downtown and then Perry Ellis and Xavier Cooks made it 26:35. In the 28th minute, it was Gabriel Olaseni who chalked up his side’s first double-digit lead with four straight points (32:42), a gap the home side was only able to reduce slightly to 40:49 by half-time.

That pattern continued after the break: The home side got within two or three points on several occasions, but s.Oliver Würzburg was repeatedly able to pull away. However, the Polar Bears were far from being defeated. They reduced the deficit to 61:67 by the end of the third quarter and, in the first four minutes of the final period, Anthony Canty and Chris Warren added 13 points to tie the scores for the first time since the opening spell (74:74). Although Würzburg again found the right reply, the home side was not to be shaken off in this spell either and drained multiple tough shots from beyond the arc in crunch time through Elston Turner, Jan Niklas Wimberg and Chris Warren. The last three by Warren from the right-hand corner leveled the encounter again with 24.8 seconds to go. After Bremerhaven called a timeout, it was then Cameron Wells who made the final score 87:85 with five seconds left on the clock.