Braunschweig

That was too little. On Saturday evening, in front of another great backdrop of 4,513 spectators in the Volkswagen Hall, our Basketball Lions did not show the reaction we had hoped for to the clear defeat the previous week at ALBA BERLIN. “First of all, I would like to apologize to the fans and our organization for today’s performance,” said head coach Jesús Ramírez after a poor performance and the resulting 87:92 defeat after overtime (39:39, 77:77). His team started with little energy and therefore a bad start with 2:11. Although the Lions were able to make up for the deficit at halftime, they played with a lot of mistakes and, above all, couldn’t get the guests’ rebounds under control. They arrived as the team with the weakest rebounds in the easyCredit BBL, but dominated the boards and collected 19 offensive rebounds. That, together with 21 Lions’ turnovers, was too big a burden to successfully leave the floor against the Tigers Tübingen, who played much more alertly and physically.

The first few minutes were already an indicator of how the game would go. The lions played poorly, lacked energy and were usually a step slower than the Tübingen team, who were more aggressive from the start. “Two teams met today who suffered significant defeats last week. One team showed character and the other didn’t,” said head coach Jesús Ramírez after the game, summing up what seemed obvious on the floor. His team was quickly behind at 2:11 and had only scored six points after five minutes. Certainly: The Tigers defended well and were very physical. But the Lions also played hesitantly, hardly took on the opponent’s intensity and threw numerous tickets.

Slight improvement, but still lots of errors

Considering an indisputable hit rate of 25 percent, it was almost flattering that the Ramírez team was only behind 15:19 after the first quarter. But after the weak start, things settled down a bit and were able to set positive accents with fastbreaks and a good Sananda Fru on the board. But they quickly fizzled out again. One reason for this was that the Lions had trouble finding a suitable matchup for Jimmy Boeheim. The forward had scored six points in the first ten minutes and continued to score at will. He also made it 22:31 (16th minute), after which Jesús Ramírez took a timeout. It had an effect: At the back, the Lions generated stops through blocked throws or ball wins, and at the front, the accurate Ferdinand Zylka and Co. found better solutions. It was also Zylka who first scored to equalize and then to take the lead 38:36. But the score went into the break at 39:39.

Even though the Lions had improved in the second quarter and were now scoring slightly better than the guests (41% versus 38%), they could by no means be satisfied with the first 20 minutes. Above all, the fact that the Tigers, as the league’s weakest rebounding team to date, had already grabbed eight rebounds on the offensive board, was probably not to Ramírez’s taste at all. At least he saw that his team got into the second half a little better. After a very hard foul by Tübingen’s Jhivvan Jackson on Nicholas Tischler, they initially experienced a moment of shock, but held on a little longer. But overall that wasn’t compelling enough. So the Lions didn’t reward themselves after the 47:43 and good defensive sequences from Sananda Fru and Amar Sylla, or were simply too unfocused and lost the ball several times. There were five turnovers in the third quarter and these contributed to the Lions could not gain any advantage.

Ramírez: At least we want to lose with our identity

We entered the fourth period with a narrow 56:55 lead. Boeheim was hardly a factor anymore. In return, Jackson put more of his stamp on the game. The league’s top scorer scored twelve points in the fourth quarter and often had the right answer to successful Lions actions. The game remained close, with Ahmaad Rorie hitting his first field throw in the 35th minute. Like almost all Lions, the Lions point guard didn’t have a good day, but now took responsibility and put his team in the lead several times. However, like all the other Lions, he repeatedly lost the ball, which hurt just as much as the guests’ still too many offensive rebounds. Nevertheless, the Lions could have won the game in regular time. After Jackson made it 77:77, they had the last attack with five seconds left on the clock. However, the decisive throw did not hit the target: extra time.

After 40 minutes, the Tigers had only hit eight percent of their three-pointers and had not used their ten more field throws particularly effectively. But in overtime, of all times, they found rhythm from a distance and scored three threes in a row to make it 79:86. The Lions were able to reduce this deficit to three points with 34 seconds left on the game clock (87:90). But the last seconds were a reflection of the entire game. First, Mateo Seric grabbed the offensive rebound after a missed three-pointer from Jackson and scored to make it 87:92. And then the Lions lost the ball again at the end.

Coach comments on the game:

Jesús Ramírez (Basketball Löwen): “First of all, I would like to apologize to the fans and our organization for today’s performance. We have to work at it and work harder than others. If someone doesn’t want to do it our way, they can say so. But I want to see that everyone gets involved every time. It was fortunate that we only lost the game in extra time. We should have been down by 20 points in the third quarter, which wasn’t the case because Tübingen missed a lot of chances. It’s part of the sport, but I want to at least lose with our identity. Two teams met today that suffered significant defeats last week. One team showed character and the other didn’t. Instead we started with 2:11. It really hurts that we acted like that at home.”

Danny Jansson (Tigers Tübingen): “Our goal was to play Tübingen basketball. Braunschweig didn’t have a good day offensively, but we showed one of our better defensive performances today. You could see our defensive stance again and that made things difficult for the opponent. The last four or five games have been a bit tough, but we can beat any opponent on any day. And today will be a good reminder of that.”

Basketball Lions: Crockett Jr. 13 (4 Assists), N. Tischler 8 (5 Rebounds, 3 Assists), Aydinoglu n.e., Zylka 15, Bango 16 (11 Rebounds), Fru 9, B. Tischler 8, Rorie 9 (6 Assists), Peterka 5, Njie (4 Assists), Sylla 4 (5 Rebounds).

Tigers Tübingen: Zaccheus, Boeheim 19 (7 Rebounds, 4 Assists), Akobundio-Ehiogu 8 (7 Rebounds), Helmanis 8, Otto 2, Ersek 9, Seric 15 (8 Rebounds), Masters 2, Jönke (5 Rebounds), Keppeler, Jackson 29 (6 Rebounds).