With Giessen, the last second-league team said goodbye to the BBL Cup. The 46ers lost clearly to Chemnitz. Ulm also progressed, but Würzburg did not make it easy for the champions. In the evening, Bonn won the rematch of the league semi-final of the previous season in Ludwigsburg by the narrowest of margins.
What a thriller in Ludwigsburg: 0.9 seconds before the end it was Savion Flagg who gave Bonn the dramatic victory with a tip-in. “Tip-In for the win!!!!! Heart racing, sweaty palms, it doesn’t matter, pure Baskets spirit wins in the end!” the Bonners wrote euphorically afterwards on X, formerly Twitter. The Champions League winners got off to a weak start in their round of 16 match-up with league rivals MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, missing their first ten threes and trailing 34-46 at half-time.
But head coach Roel Moors’ team showed morale despite a 16-point deficit in the second half and won at the last minute. The 80-79 (34:46) victory should give the Rhinelanders, who started the season so badly with only one win from their first three games, fresh impetus and self-confidence.
“It doesn’t always have to be pretty. We knew it would be difficult,” said Bonn’s Christian Sengfelder. The best scorer for the Telekom Baskets was Glynn Watson with 21 points, the US American also had eight assists. For Ludwigsburg, his fellow countryman Jayvon Greaves was convincing with 19 points.
Ulm celebrates next win – Giessen is out
A narrow victory was also celebrated by ratiopharm Ulm, who started the new Bundesliga season perfectly with three wins. The Spatzen struggled to a 76:72 (44:32) win against the Würzburg Baskets. The champions went into the dressing room with the momentum thanks to a 16:2 run at the end of the second quarter and were leading by 14 points eight minutes before the end of the game. However, Würzburg came back and even equalised at 72:72 before Ulm’s L.J. Figueroa (19 points) scored the game-deciding basket with 13 seconds on the clock.
Meanwhile, the Niners Chemnitz made sure that the last remaining second-division team in the competition, the Giessen 46ers, had to say goodbye. The 99ers won clearly with 89:64 (49:30). Kaza Kajami-Keane led Chemnitz with 24 points.
