“We didn’t manage to defend well over 40 minutes and to contain Bremerhaven,” said Florian Koch. The rebound statistics were the best indication of the somewhat drowsy performance by the Baskets. While Bremerhaven secured 41 rebounds, the Bonners had only about half as many (22).

“We wanted to play at high pace and test whether the Bonners were tired. We used the opportunities they gave us well and worked very well at the boards,” explained Bremerhaven’s coach, Sebastian Machowski.

His Bonn counterpart, Predrag Krunic, complained his team could not control the pace. “Bremerhaven played faster and with more energy. One saw that in the rebound. The victory was deserved,” said Krunic. It was clear to the Bonn trainer that, “the recent weeks have cost us physical and mental energy. I’m happy that my team can prepare in peace next week for the important home game on Sunday against Ludwigsburg.”

A spectacle of attacking play involving both sides developed from the jump ball in front of the 2830 spectators. It was above all the Basket’s top scorer, Josh Mayo (28 points) and Ojars Silins (18/6 three pointers) who kept their team in contention. The guests were also in the lead a few times until shortly before the break.

After changing ends, the home team was always ahead by up to five points. But Bonn stayed in contention until 75:77. Then the Polar Bears had an 11-0 run and the Bonners could not close the resulting 13 point gap (75:88). They could no longer count on Ryan Thompson (toe injury) and Silins was not scoring and later injured his right knee.

Talking of the way forward, Koch said: “We must now quickly forget about the defeat, prepare for next weekend and then win against Ludwigsburg.” (Original text: Gerhard Mertens. Translated by Kate Carey.)