s.Oliver Würzburg loses 69:79 to Sakarya BSB in the FIBA Europe Cup

Around 1,200 spectators saw a fiercely contested, intense encounter in the s.Oliver Arena on Wednesday evening in which the visitors came out on top: In its first home game in Group A of the FIBA Europe Cup, s.Oliver Würzburg was defeated 69:79 (41:45) by the Turkish representative Sakarya BSB. After an evenly poised first three periods, the home side was not able to capitalize on its chances in attack in crunch time and was forced to watch as the visitors pull away. The game’s top scorers were Toney Douglas (20 points/4 threes) for the victorious Turkish club and Xavier Cooks (18/2) for Würzburg.

Both teams operated with great intensity from the tip-off and did not give each other an inch. The first successful action in offensive came from the Turkish side’s 2.09-meter man from Cameroon: Landry Nnoko opened the scoring with an and one. Nnoko remained the player with whom the home side had most problems in the further course of the first half, scoring 14 of his 16 points before the break. After trailing by 0:6 early on, however, s.Oliver Würzburg then put up stiff resistance. In particular, the club from Lower Franconia was able to rely on its accuracy from beyond the arc: Four threes from Xavier Cooks (2), Skyler Bowlin and Florian Koch gave it the lead for the first time (13:10 in the 6th minute), although that did not last long: The first period ended with the home side trailing by 23:27.

s.Oliver Würzburg spent the entire second quarter trying to catch up, but was much improved in defense. As a result, it still trailed 41:45 at the break after an evenly matched second period. Sakarya was initially able to open up a slightly larger gap at the start of the second half (43:50 in the 22nd minute). Cameron Wells with a successful jump shot and Skyler Bowlin with a steal and wonderful pass on a fast break to Gabriel Olaseni then sparked Würzburg’s strongest spell. The home side now defended very intensely, especially near the basket – and, apart from a bucket from outside by Alan Herndon, the Turkish club failed to score in the next four minutes. The result was a 14:3 run, which Xavier Cooks crowned with two buckets to give Würzburg its highest lead (57:53 in the 26th minute).

However, the visitors were able to equalize again by the end of the third period (58:58). The encounter also remained up for grabs for a long time in the final period (65:66 in the 36th minute), before luck deserted the home side with its shots at the worst moment: in crunch time. “We continued to carve out good chances to shoot, but didn’t make any of them. That was perhaps due to our opponent’s physical play, but it was certainly annoying. It wasn’t the first time we’ve no longer scored at home in the final phase of a game,” said Head Coach Denis Wucherer. With just over two minutes remaining, it was Toney Douglas who finally put Sakarya BSB on the road to victory with a three-pointer to make it 65:73.