Würzburg wins on the road

s.Oliver Würzburg has ended the first half of the season in the easyCredit German Basketball League with an away win in the far north of Germany and now embarks on the second half in a playoff spot. The club from Lower Franconia led by 15 points at one stage at league newcomers Hamburg Towers on Saturday evening, but then had to fight again to the very last second, with Cameron Wells making two free throws with seven seconds left on the clock to enable his side to capture a narrow 86:83 victory. The encounter’s top scorer was Hamburg’s Jorge Gutierrez (20 points). Four Würzburg players got into double digits: Wells (15), Skyler Bowlin (15), Jordan Hulls (13) and Victor Rudd (13).

After the 22-day break since the home win over Braunschweig on January 3, “we have to play with the same energy and intensity as Hamburg,” was the rallying call by Head Coach Denis Wucherer going into the game – and his players did what was asked of them in uncompromising fashion. They made life tough at the back for the home side, which has yet to win a home game in the easyCredit German Basketball League, and moved the ball quickly and precisely in offense, often finding a free-standing teammate beyond the arc. And Würzburg’s shooters exploited that free space: Nine of their first 11 attempted threes hit the mark.

The Towers were able to keep the game evenly poised up to 10:10 in the 5th minute, but then s.Oliver Würzburg produced a run of nine points without reply in a brief space of time, forcing Hamburg’s Head Coach to call a timeout. Skyler Bowlin made two steals in this spell, resulting in easy points, and between them Victor Rudd, who was better integrated in attack than in recent games, drained his second three of the encounter. The Towers’ timeout did not change the run of play much: Würzburg added three more buckets from outside before the end of the first period (one by Jordan Hulls and two by Florian Koch) – six of its shots from beyond the arc were on target in the opening quarter.

The second quarter began in the same style: Flo Koch, Junior Etou and Cameron Wells buried three more threes, playing a key part in helping the visitors stretch their advantage to 15 points (35:50 in the 18th minute). Hamburg was able to reduce the deficit to 40:50 before half-time, and after the break the home side displayed the fighting qualities that had been their hallmark in the weeks before.

“We knew Hamburg would start a run after the break, so we wanted to be ready in the second half. But then we showed that we weren’t really,” said Wucherer afterwards. “We failed to snap up a lot of balls under our own basket and so Hamburg had second chances to score. They played very pluckily in defense and prevented us from moving the ball around, whereas we didn’t really come up with any ideas.”

The club from Northern Germany not only closed down its opponents’ passing lanes, but also covered Würzburg’s shooters far more closely – which was clearly reflected in the shooting percentage. The only three Würzburg made out of six tries in the third period was by Jordan Hulls after a beautiful pass by Cameron Wells to make it 53:63 in the 27th minute. However, the “Sniper from Indiana” was not able to stop Hamburg’s comeback as the newly promoted club cut the gap to 62:67 by the end of the quarter.

s.Oliver Würzburg briefly gained a bit of breathing space at the start of the final period thanks to two buckets from downtown by Victor Rudd and Jordan Hulls (66:75 in the 34th minute), but the Towers then clawed back point after point in their sold-out arena until former German international Heiko Schaffartzik tied the scores at 81:81 with a difficult mid-range shot and 74 seconds remaining. Yet Wucherer’s players, who have already experienced and overcome a number of exciting crunch times in the current season, once again kept their cool, made two important stops in the final minute and scored five of their six free throws.

With the score standing at 83:86, Hamburg’s Dutch player Yannick Franke had the chance on the last attack to equalize with a three, but his shot failed to drop – and Victor Rudd snapped up the rebound to help his team capture its tenth victory of the season.

s.Oliver Würzburg now faces a game on the road at German champions FC Bayern Munich next weekend to start the second half of the season. The tip-off in the Audi Dome in Munich on Sunday, February 2, is at 3 p.m.

Source: www.soliver-wuerzburg.de