Basketball
This is not how the Lions from Karlsruhe had imagined Halloween: Paderborn lost 69:83 in the second basketball league and sorely missed the injured “Bazou” Koné. There is hardly any time to lick wounds.
Photo: Stefan Mazur/GES
Aleksandar Scepanovic didn’t want to talk about explicit penalty training, but the pros of the PSK Lions definitely had to listen to clear words from their coach this week after the weak performance in the Halloween home game against Uni Baskets Paderborn (69:83).
“We lacked any spirit and didn’t have good body language,” the Croatian criticized exactly the attributes in the game of the second division basketball team, which had distinguished the team in the victory in Münster a week ago and which made it possible with a view to the first double match day weekend of the season with the home game on Friday against Gießen (7.30 p.m.) and the game on Sunday against the promoted team from Dresden (4 p.m.), who started the season well, can be found quickly.
“We live off our energy. If we don’t deliver that, we usually don’t stand a chance,” warns Ivan Karacic. Against Paderborn, you could only see something of this in the first 20 minutes before the complete collapse followed after the 40:37 lead at the break.
Defense falls apart in the third quarter
Captain Maurice Pluskota, who had returned after injuring his hand, said the defensive team was “catastrophic” from the middle of the third quarter: “The aggressiveness, but above all the communication, wasn’t right.”
At the same time, without Bazoumana Koné, who was sorely missed again, nothing went together offensively, which made it easy for the guests to catch up and hurry away with a 27:4 run across quarters.
Koné is greatly missed by the Lions
“Of course he’s an important player for us, especially because he brings in a lot of energy,” says Karacic, emphasizing the importance of Koné, who has injured his thumb, for the Lions game.
It will only be decided at short notice whether this Scepanovic will be available again against Gießen. It is at least as important for the coach that the rest of the pack of lions reacted against the BBL relegated on Friday: “I expect that every player sacrifices himself. We don’t have to win, but we have to accept the fight.”
