ratiopharm ulm finished off the group phase of the easyCredit BBL with a perfect 4-0 record as they fended off BG Göttingen 89-66 in Group A.
Thomas Klepeisz paced Ulm with 16 points while Archie Goodwin and Derek Willis had 12 points and Tyler Harvey and Gavin Schilling both picked up 10 points. Ulm came into the game knowing it had first place in Group A locked up and head coach Jaka Lakovic did not play anyone more than 25 minutes while every player saw at least 9 minutes on the court as the Quarter-Finals tip off on Wednesday June 17.
Göttingen for their part were already secured fourth place in the group. Alex Ruoff paced Johan Roijakkers’ team with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals while Dennis Kramer tallied 11 points and Mihaljo Andric had 10 points for Göttingen, who finished group play with a 1-3 record.
Ruoff returned to action after missing two games with back spasms and hit a three to put Göttingen up 5-2. Dylan Osetkowski and Harvey both drained long balls at the other end in a 10-0 Ulm run to move ahead 12-5 and the advantage was 17-14 after 10 minutes.
Mathis Mönninghoff and Bennet Hundt both knocked down three-balls as Göttingen tallied the first eight points of the second quarter and opened a 22-17 lead. Goodwin picked up four points in a 10-1 run for a 32-26 margin. Andric nailed a triples at the other end and the Ulm lead was 39-33 at the break.
Harvey and Christoph Philipps hit threes early in the second half with Philipps also converting a three-point play as Ulm started the third quarter with a 15-5 run to move ahead 54-38. Jaka Lakovic’s team appeared to put the game to bed with a 9-2 spurt for a 63-43 cushion. Göttingen did manage to pull the deficit to 66-52 after three quarters.
Ulm scored the first 14 points of the fourth quarter as the margin grew to 80-52. Göttingen needed more than 5 minutes to finally score in the final frame and the game was already long decided.
QUOTES: Ulm’s Andi Obst: “Yeah, we can be satisfied. It was clear that it would be a fight at the beginning but we pulled ourselves together at halftime and did what our coaches wanted us to do.”“It was very important. We had three victories and we wanted to continue the trend. We did that and we are happy.”
Göttingen’s Alex Ruoff: “It was nice to be out there but it was a tough go for us. Ulm did a great job, played with a lot of energy. We gotta go back to the drawing board a little bit.”
“We liked what we did in the first half. We just couldn’t get it going in the third. We ran out of gas a little bit. We have some time off a little bit to get our legs back, and then hopefully we can put together a good showing on Thursday.”