“I have to look at the last situation again. But I stand very clearly behind my players. ”That was Sebastian Gleim’s short comment on Tuesday evening immediately after the 76:80 at the Fraport Skyliners in Ulm. A day later, the Frankfurt basketball coach got a precise picture of the controversial and at first glance opaque game situation at the end of the game. With the result that, from his point of view, a technical foul would have been “justified” for Skyliners professional Michael Kessens and Dylan Osetkowski from Ulm. But Osetkowski was allowed to go to the free throw line, who converted both throws to 78:73.
This meant that the team from Ulm could no longer take their Bundesliga victory in the exciting final phase. For Kessens, on the other hand, who also conceded an unsportsmanlike foul, the clash ended eleven seconds before the final siren. Why? After his successful dunking at 76:73, the Ulm Center Osetkowski was hanging on the ring and hit the Frankfurt Center Kessens directly below him with his foot on the head. Nevertheless, Kessens kept still and found himself with great difficulty. Then he pushed Osetkowski, who was approaching him, slightly away in the crowd. For a moment, emotions predominated in both of them. Kessens, who disliked the unequal treatment in terms of punishment, acknowledged his premature end of duty due to the burden of fouling with angry looks and great incomprehension. He needed to be reassured by his teammates.
“So it’s a little bitter”
The final turbulence left everyone involved. “I would have liked to have won the game in basketball. So it’s a little bitter, ”said Ulm builder Thomas Klepiesz. The Skyliners found the loss of two important points in the battle for eighth play-off place particularly bitter. They had reason to critically question several referee decisions. Also the 54 seconds before the end, when playmaker Joe Rahon was punished with an unsportsmanlike foul when the score was 73:70 for Frankfurt. Gleim, however, classified the offense only as a “normal foul”. In fact, it was a very tough decision by the referees, which had major consequences for the Frankfurt team. The Ulm playmaker Per Günther hit two free throws before Troy Caupain scored the points to 74:73.
“In my eyes there were some unfortunate whistles that in my opinion were not really necessary,” Gleim was still practicing diplomacy in his assessment. This probably also included the step error imposed against the Frankfurt top scorer Matt Mobley (26 points) when the score was 73:74. Instead of taking the lead again half a minute before the final siren, the bottom line in crunchtime was everything against the Skyliners. Also worth discussing was the offensive foul against Rasheed Moore, imposed in the 26th minute, in which the Frankfurt winger suffered a laceration on his head. The American could no longer be used by Gleim. All in all, there was a lot of bad luck on the part of the Skyliners.
However, they had a few shortcomings to blame themselves: at 17, the number of ball losses was far too high. Or the too few offensive rebounds (two). After a strong start thanks to strong quotas from beyond the three-point line and leads of 27:18 and 31:23, the Frankfurters reduced too much. “We had some bad attacks and Ulm hit some tough throws,” said captain Quantez Robertson (14 points), who played his 400th first division game for the Skyliners. A proud anniversary with a bitter aftertaste for him and his team.
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