The middle of the week days are usually reserved for the international club games where a Brose Bamberg is usually battling away at home against a Real Madrid or CSKA Moscow´s or are tingling around somewhere in Europe at a Macabbi Tel Aviv or FC Barcelona, but this week there were also other teams in action from the easyCredit BBL, but also in the NBBL there was a make up game between two teams Eintracht Frankfurt/Fraport Skyliners and Team Urspring that could be classified at the moment belonging to the top basketball schools as in the last years both teams have developed big talents like Johannes Voigtmann, Danilo Barthel and now Isaac Bonga while Team Urspring have brought out talent after talent like Lucca Staiger, Christian Standhardinger, Gavin Schilling or Mahir Agva that played his first BBL game at age 16 and now plays for the Fraport Skyliners and is fighting for minutes from head coach Gordon Herbert. Team Urspring came to Frankfurt with 5 NBBL titles in their baggage and only a disappointing 4-6 record this season, but a lot of self confidence as they had dismantled TV Langen for the second time this season holding them to only 53 points while Eintracht Frankfurt/Fraport Skyliners were reeling off a hard 76-57 loss to ratiopharm Ulm where all their stars didn´t suit up. The club played a lot of their bench players giving them abundant minutes and the club fought with heart cutting down a double digit lead to six points with four minutes to go, but then ran out of gas giving up a 15-2 run to end the game. Both Eintracht Frankfurt and Team Urspring were motivated to finish the season strong as the home team had already qualified for the playoffs while the guests need a good run in the last games to reach the promised land. Team Urspring controlled the first quarter, but Eintracht Frankfurt improved their play in the second and third quarters and were on the same level as the guests, but lost control in crunch-time as the Tekka And Noeres Show took control extending their losing streak to two games losing to Team Urspring 71-65.
After the game an old known face of the region Sebastian Barth who played many years in Langen was coaching only his second NBBL game was content about the win, but also felt that his team has a realistic chance of reaching the NBBL playoffs. “We defended long phases with heart, but we didn´t have consistent ball movement in the game. It was a hard fought game, but in the end the three pointer by Patrick Teka was big and we did a good job forcing them to difficult shots. I think that this win will give us added self confidence to reach the playoffs. I think we need at least one win against either ratiopharm Ulm or Ludwigsburg”, expressed Team Ursping head coach Sebastian Barth. Eintracht Frankfurt 17 year old swing man Oliver Babitsch had his best game in the NBBL netting 19 points and was disappointed that the club couldn´t get the easy things done on the court and not surprised that he could deal with the responsibility having to take over for the top players out of action. “We didn´t play for 40 minutes and had too many up and down phases. We woke up too late in the first quarter. The second half was a lot better. The little things killed us at the end. Team defense was good and we played with a lot of heart, but our one on one defense wasn´t good. In Hanau, I was a player that my team relied on to have good games. So needing to step up now was nothing new for me”, expressed Oliver Babitsch.
