The BG Göttingen will compete against the Kirchheim Knights on Saturday. The Swabians recently defeated league leaders Hagen 81:60.
Göttingen – It is the second longest away trip this season in the 2nd Basketball Bundesliga ProA. It is 445 kilometers to Kirchheim unter Teck, located southeast of Stuttgart. It’s only further to Tübingen. The game is played in the Stadtmitte sports hall, where an estimated 300 white plastic garden chairs formed part of the 800 seats on the main stand side in the first second division phase of BG Göttingen between 2012 and 2014. On Saturday (7 p.m.) the violets will be guests again at the Kirchheim Knights.
In the first leg, the Violets achieved their first home win in the ProA with a score of 97:78. With four three-pointers and a total of 17 points, captain Mathis Mönninghoff was the most successful BGer. For the Swabians, whose new US players had only joined the team shortly before the match in Göttingen, Phillip Montreal Russell stood out with 19 points.
“He knows where the basket is,” says BG coach Fabian Strauss, assessing him as one of the central players in coach colleague Igor Perovic’s team. Strauss considers Tylan Pope to be even more important, and Tylan Morgan also deserves special attention. Strauss continued: “Russell is an athletic thrower, the team is now well-coordinated.” Individually, you have to be on your guard against the Americans and match their athleticism as best you can.
An American has also come into focus again at the BG: Zach Jackson was the top scorer with 25 points in the 105:99 after extra time against Paderborn. And even before that, the forward from Wichita (US state of Kansas) showed improving form again after previously falling into a small hole. “He does his job well,” says Strauss. “We reminded him what he can and must give us. He tries to keep his style of play simple.”
Jordan Sears is now in a better mood again, having only played 15 of the 45 minutes against Paderborn due to the after-effects of an infection. The Violet playmaker was also involved in the training content these days: “We continued to work on the offensive rhythm.” You are now in a phase of the season in which you have to train for less time, but more intensively and with more concentration, says Strauss.
Interesting: Göttingen’s playmaker Jordan Sears only appears in 15th place in the ranking of the ProA’s most successful basket shooters with an average of 15.1 points. Zach Jackson follows in 25th place with 14.4 points per game. This underlines the balance of the Strauß team. Kirchheim’s Phillip Montreal Russell is ninth with 16.5 points per game.
Does the BG have to tremble before these knights? At least the required respect is certainly appropriate. The Perovic team beat league leaders Phoenix Hagen at home with 81:60 – a big exclamation and warning sign!
After the game in Kirchheim, Coach Strauss will give him four days off, and training will continue from next Thursday. However, without Adam Ramstedt. He will fly from Stuttgart to Sweden on Sunday, where he will play European Championship qualifiers against Estonia (February 27 in Stockholm and March 1 in Tallinn) for his home country under former BG coach Mikko Riipinen (now Ludwigsburg).
The Violets are planning a test game against first division club Löwen Braunschweig without spectators during the FIBA break. The Lions lost on Wednesday against Würzburg with the new Spanish coach Ramón Diaz in the last seconds with 82:87 and are at the bottom of the BBL with only five wins in 21 games. (haz/gsd)
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