s.Oliver Würzburg loses to Alba Berlin by 75:94

s.Oliver Würzburg suffered a convincing defeat in its final game before the season’s first break for internationals: The home side committed too many errors against ALBA BERLIN in front of 3,140 spectators in the sold-out s.Oliver Arena to withstand the second-placed team in the easyCredit German Basketball League.

“You have to do a lot right to stand a chance against Berlin,” emphasized Head Coach Denis Wucherer in the run-up to the game. His players also did a number of things right in spells, but their performance was not constant enough to frustrate the big favorites. That was apparent early on in the encounter: Although Cameron Wells put the home side 2:0 in front on the very first attack, the club from Germany’s capital dominated the proceedings for several minutes after that, producing a run of 12 points without reply to take its first double-digit lead in the fifth minute.

s.Oliver Würzburg then got better into its stride in offense and chalked up 18 points by the end of the first period. However, that was of little avail, as Berlin could only rarely be stopped. Nevertheless, the home side was able to reduce the deficit from 15 points at one stage to ten at the end of the quarter. However, the beginning of the second period was then a carbon copy of the first: Once again, the home side only managed two points from free throws in the first three minutes, whereas Berlin notched up nine points to pull 22:39 ahead. Even three successive buckets from beyond the arc after a timeout in the 13th minute did not cut the gap any further by half-time.

Right after the break, Clint Chapman scored twice to make it 39:60 in the 21st minute. s.Oliver Würzburg struck back with a 9:0 run and this time it was Berlin’s Head Coach Aito Garcia Reneses who was forced to call a timeout after just under three minutes of play. Thanks to its commitment and fight, the home side managed to keep the second 20 minutes evenly matched. However, whenever the gap narrowed, the second-placed club had an answer up its sleeve and was able to be pull further in front again. As a result the gap between it and the home side never fell below 13 points by the final buzzer. One reason for that was the number of mistakes Würzburg made in the second half as well: 13 of the 21 turnovers it conceded came in the third and fourth periods and its shooting percentage was also not good enough to put Berlin’s victory in any serious jeopardy.