Ratiopharm Ulm suffered a bitter defeat in the Eurocup. It didn’t go any better for the MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in Romania.
There was not much at stake for Ulm in the guest game at the Spanish top club from Valencia: the team from the Danube city has already secured 8th place in Group B and is thus in the final round of the Eurocup. In the final group match, head coach Jaka Lakovic played some youngsters and thus gave them some game practice.
The situation was different for the home side: Valencia, with former Berlin player Martin Hermannsson in their ranks, still needed a win to secure second place. Accordingly, the four-time Euro Cup winners started the match against the current Bundesliga fourth-placed team with great motivation and quickly gained a comfortable lead. Valencia was already 22 points ahead at the break and pulled away in the third period at the latest. The final quarter, which was even in Ulm’s favour (26:21), no longer carried any weight, and in the end the guests suffered a clear 71:103 defeat.
“With the circumstances and our young team, Valencia had the game completely on their side. I want to congratulate Valencia for the victory and the second place, of course I also wish them good luck in the play-offs,” Lakovic said. “For our young players it was a good opportunity to gain match practice, which was maybe missing for one or the other during the season.”
While Karim Jallow (19 points) stood out for the Germans, Bojan Dubljevic (19) and youngster Guillem Ferrando were convincing for Valencia.
The MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, meanwhile, started the quarter-final series of the Basketball Champions League with a narrow defeat. The Bundesliga club lost the first duel at U-BT Cluj-Napoca on Tuesday with 73:76 (34:37). This means that the pressure is already high: In case of a second defeat against the Romanian club (on 13 April), the Swabians will be eliminated. In total, there can only be three duels.
The Ludwigsburg team got off to the better start on Tuesday with their usual aggressive defence, but failed to find their rhythm offensively: In the first quarter, the guests scored only 13 points in an emotional and heated atmosphere. In the second quarter, coach John Patrick’s team repeatedly brought the ball near the basket, where Ethan Happ was particularly convincing. At the break, however, the Ludwigsburg team still trailed 34:37.
A 13:2 run in the middle of the third period gave the Bundesliga team the momentum, but in the last period Cluj-Napoca turned the game around with several successful threes. In the closing seconds, Ludwigsburg’s top scorer Jonah Radebaugh (16 points) had the chance to equalise, but he missed his three-pointer.
The quarter-finals in the Champions League are played in “best of three” mode. The team that wins two games first will advance to the semi-finals. On 13 April, the Ludwigsburg team will welcome the club from Romania for the second match.
