Quakenbrueck. The NBBL basketball team of the Young Rasta Dragons don’t like to think back to the first leg against Leverkusen. The defeat at the Bayer Giants (65:75) was marked by many individual mistakes by the guests. On Sunday, January 16, 2022 (1 p.m.), things should be different in the Rasta Gym.
After the cancellation of the home game against Alba Berlin due to corona, the Young Rasta Dragons (YRD) are looking forward to the upcoming game with impatience. They are currently in third place in the main round A (North) with 10:6 points and are therefore the direct pursuers of Leverkusen (12:6). The YRD even have a lead of 87 points in basket ratio.
Leverkusen wins the tight games
No reason to lean back, the young dragons know that. But a basis for a confident appearance against a guest whose performance fluctuations make a forecast difficult. In close games, the Farbenstadt-based team are battle-tested, overcome their nervousness and thus rake in points. For example, in the 90:87 success in Hamburg, when it was still 77:77 against the Towers at the start of the final quarter. Very similar to the 74:71 over Paderborn. The Bayer Giants seem to have specialized in stamina in the heart-stopping final.
YRD would climb to second place with a win
The YRD squad should pay particular attention to Ino Vrencken and Lennart Litera, who were good for more than 50 percent of Bayer’s baskets in the first leg. In the YRD team, Kilian Brockhoff (19), Emilijus Peleda (14) and Noah Jänen (11) scored double digits, but without being able to turn things around in the last section. “Leverkusen were able to take advantage of the better practice,” analyzed YRD head coach Hendrik Gruhn after the 65:75.
Gruhn’s players are eager to solve the “equation with unknowns” better in the second leg. With a win at the Rasta Gym, they could oust the Giants offspring from second place and position themselves behind leaders Alba Berlin. That would be a moral advantage that should not be underestimated when it comes to a showdown with the Berliners.
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