PrintShare
Well shouted against Dresden! Well roared against Karlsruhe too? Luis Figge is challenged again today. Photo: Schepp © Schepp
Pour. Second against seventh, favorite against outsider, traditional club against upstart: none of that matters today. All of this no longer has any meaning, or no meaning at all, when the Gießen 46ers start the playoff quarter-finals of the 2nd Basketball Bundesliga against the Karlsruhe Lions at 7:30 p.m. Because firstly, things turn out differently, secondly than you think and thirdly, these playoffs have their very own rules.
Then it no longer counts that the 46ers secured second place in the final ProA rankings with a furious finale last weekend.
Giessen 46ers – Karsruhe Lions (Today, 7.30 p.m.)
Then the home advantage that Branislav Ignjatovic’s men secured for a possible fifth game in this “best-of-five series” counts for little. And “Frenki” doesn’t want to know anything about being a favorite anyway. Rather, the 46ers coach points out that Karlsruhe is “an extremely dangerous team” that started the season with the clear goal of making the jump to the BBL.
Jonathan Maier, who has postponed his planned end to his career and will remain in Giessen for two more years, warns of a “difficult opponent”. The center knows: »Karlsruhe acts very athletically and they move very quickly. We have to come up with something and have a really good game plan.” 46ers captain Robin Benzing, on the other hand, remains undeterred in his self-confidence: “If we continue to do our job, then no one will beat us so quickly.”
A self-confidence that is of course immense after 15 wins from 17 games in the second half of the season for Central Hesse. A self-confidence that is also necessary. Because the “Lions” have also been successful in their hunt for points recently. With their last four clear victories against Paderborn and Nuremberg as well as in Vechta and Koblenz, with which they relegated Münster to eighth place at the end of the main round and knocked Dresden and Bremerhaven out of the playoffs, the Baden team underlined their current impressive form.
And the 46ers were by no means in impressive form at the Osthalle thriller last Saturday. As the coach also knows: “Karlsruhe is a team against which our last performance in the 89:88 win over Dresden will not be enough to advance to the next round.”
But at the same time, the experienced coach takes any pressure off his men. »No one can take second place away from us. I would only have been disappointed this season if we had missed our goal of participating in the playoffs.” This goal has been achieved. But of course everyone and everyone wants to exceed this goal. While the fans are already dreaming of a return to the Bundesliga, the players are also getting excited for the next basketball thriller: “I’m really keen on the playoffs,” is the bold announcement from Luis Figge, who adds: “If it’s about Something works when we know that the hall is behind us and the atmosphere will be breathtaking again, then it’s not just me who gives 110 percent, but all of us.”
And Frenki Ignjatovic promises almost martially: “We will fight until the last cartridge. And if God wants, we can celebrate too.”
But as we all know, the basketball god puts hard work before celebrating. And that will be necessary against the team of clever coach Aleksandar Scepanovic. Director O’Showen Williams, the newly signed Victor Bailey Jr., US power forward Dennis Tunstall and the Danish big man Bakary Dibba are the cornerstones of a Karlsruhe team that always goes into its games with a clever match plan. “We have a lot of work to do,” says Ignjatovic, who can rely, as always, on the fact that his assistant Nikola Stanic has analyzed the opponent well via video study. And then the really big hope will join the 46ers team again. Because Stefan Fundic has reported fit and should score a lot under the baskets today.
Since more than 2,600 tickets were already sold on Friday morning, the Osthalle is likely to be packed this evening when the last tickets are sold at the box office. Then the East Hall could once again become Eastern Hell. And then the 46ers could actually burn the Lions in this Eastern hell.
2024-05-02 10:52:00
#showdown
