FAIL

The wave of illnesses of the past week had subsided, with the exception of Johanna Gerlinger, all basket hunters were operational at the reigning German champions from Breisgau; also playmaker Jessica Loera, who was unable to fully participate in training on Thursday due to an injury.

The American showed right from the start that the Eisvogel were willing to put up a fight, even though they were on the worse cards after losing 58-78 in the first leg. Loera scored the first points of the game with a three. She also scored the second lead (5:3) – it should be the last in this game. Since the Turn-Klubb Hannover around Laura Stockton, the daughter of the former NBA star John Stockton, scored a high percentage, the lead passed to the guests, who then moved away to ten points in the Freiburg Unihalle (25:15).

But: The USC women managed to push the deficit back into the single digits at the end of both the first and second quarters. 27:37 and 33:43 turned into a four-point difference (41:45) by half-time, which gave the Eisvogel all chances for the second half. Above all, Loera, who contributed 16 points in the first 20 minutes, could hardly be stopped by the defense of the team from Lower Saxony for half a time. But her counterpart, TKH playmaker Dara Taylor, often prevailed one-on-one – or she used successful jump shots. Perhaps this season she will become the so-called MVP, i.e. the best player in the league.

However, the kingfishers of the 2022/23 season would not be the kingfishers if they did not allow themselves a slump. Some of the approximately 800 spectators were already guessing at half-time when the weak phase would come. They didn’t have to wait long. Because at the beginning of the third quarter, the ball losses increased – and in the 26th minute the gap had swelled to 16 points (48:64).

Coach Victor Herbosa’s team never gave up, but the freshly crowned cup winners had a more mature game and better individual skills on Friday evening. He is now preparing to become the successor to USC Freiburg as the German champion. To do this, however, he must first prevail in the semi-finals and in the final series.

For the kingfishers, on the other hand, a season has ended that did not go as desired. Although the team reached the playoffs in eighth place, all ten games in the 2023 calendar year were lost.