One-half of the German BBL playoff finals is complete as Brose Baskets Bamberg swept New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig 3-0 in the semifinals to reach their first finals since winning the 2007 title. Bamberg will face either Deutsche Bank Skyliners Frankfurt or Eisbären Bremerhaven in the finals. In other news, Ingo Weiss was re-elected as president of the German Basketball Federation. And the German U17 men side beat the U18 Slovakian team again in their preparations for the U17 World Championship in July.
Brose Baskets Bamberg into BBL finals
German Cup winners Bamberg eased past Braunschweig in game three at home 94-82 with Anton Gavel scoring 23 points and Predrag Suput adding 21 while Elton Brown had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“I am proud of this team. We never lost our focuse in these playoffs. It is difficult to win three games in a row, regardless of who you are playing. But we did that against Bonn and now Braunschweig. Now we have the goal of winning three more games,” said Bamberg captain Casey Jacobsen, who hopes like his teammates to finish the league-cup double.
“We cannot get ahead of ourselves. We have to be fully concentrated on the first game in the final. We have so much confidence.
“I am really happy about reaching the final. Even in the tough times we always believed in ourselves. We will take a day off and prepare for the final,” said Brose coach Chris Fleming.
Bamberg won the German title in 2005 and 2007 under Dirk Bauermann. Fleming however can lead the Bavarian club to their first ever double.
Frankfurt lead 2-1 after road win
Bamberg also were in the finals in 2004 but lost in five games to Deutsche Bank Skyliners Frankfurt. And now Gordon Herbert’s team is just one victory from reaching the finals for the third team – they lost to Bamberg in the 2005 finals.
Frankfurt will play game four at home on Tuesday, June 1 with a 2-1 series lead over Eisbären Bremerhaven after taking game three 79-53 after a 19-0 run spanning the first and second quarters.
Dragan Labovic, Pascal Roller and Derrick Allen all scored 11 points and three others added eight points in a convincing road victory for the Skyliners, who were without injured playmaker Aubrey Reese.
“I am very satisfied. My team was fully focused and compensated very well the loss of Aubrey Reese. We played as a team,” said Herbert.
“Our bench players performed very good. That makes me even happier. If you can count on a number of players in the playoffs, that’s better,” said Frankfurt sport director Kamil Novak.
Despite winning game three on the road, Skyliners players know they still must win one more to reach the finals.
“The series is not decided yet. But if we can keep up the intensity then I think we can be optimistic about the next game,” said Roller.
“I expect a battle,” said Novak about the Tuesday showdown in Frankfurt. “Both teams are physically tired. I hope that we have an advantage because we have shown a strong team spirit all season.”
Ingo Weiss re-elected as German Basketball Federation president
Ingo Weiss was re-elected as the president of the German Basketball Federation and will serve another four-year term. Weiss was also elected as the vice president of the new Central Board of FIBA Europe thereby becoming a member of FIBA Europe’s Executive Committee.
“I am very happy about the results of the elections. (Germany) is represented in the important commissions and involved in all the important matters of European basketball. It’s a good feeling if you are rewarded for hard work on the international level.”
German U17 men beat U18 Slovaks again, France U18s next
Germany’s U17 men’s national team once again beat the Slovakia U18 team 98-37 as they prepare for July’s U17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany. Frank Menz’s team, which beat the Slovak U18s 85-70 on May 28, received 25 points from Besnik Bekteshi while Nikolaj Vukovic had 14 points with Julius Wolf adding 13, Paul Albrecht 11 and Jakob Krumbeck 10.
“We played a very good and intense game. Our fast break game, which we trained in Rotenburg (during a 10-day training camp), worked especially well against the Slovakians,” said Menz, whose team collected 23 steals in the game.
Next up for the German U17 team will be an encounter with the French U18 team, which finished runners-up at the last European Championship.
“France has an excellent team with very talented players,” Menz said. “They are a tough test for us but this is exactly what we need to get ready for Hamburg.”