By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Darussafaka Dogus didn’t enter the game against Brose Bamberg with an attitude fitting for a team that had to give a “do or die” battle and found themselves even trailing by 14 points in the first half.
Yet in the end, David Blatt’s players prevailed 99 – 97 in overtime with Bradley Wanamaker putting the exclamation mark on a 30 points career-high performance (he also had 6 assists and 6 rebounds) with the decisive basket for the 99 – 96 in the final seconds of the extra period.
Brose Bamberg fought very hard and despite some rather debatable calls against them plus not having something to gain from this match apart from the prestige that comes with the win, they were ahead 35 – 21 in the mid of the second period. Maodo Lo had scored 11 out of 13 points in the first and was the main source of trouble for Dacka’s defense at that point.
After a fine first half, the hosts went to the locker rooms with a 40-29 lead, but Darussafaka managed to turn the tables. The hosts began making some necessary stops and find easy points in transition to chew bits of their deficit. The Turkish squad trailed by three points (58-55) at the end of the third quarter and the game turned quite close during the fourth. Luke Harangody was the one to tie the score 84 – 84 with only some seconds left and although Brose Bamberg had the last shot, Darius Miller missed it and everything was decided in overtime.
Bamberg also had the last shot at the end of the extra five and the chance to win the game, but Miller missed it again and now Darussafaka Dogus will fight in the last round against Crvena Zvezda for the last playoffs spot.
Will Clyburn added 26 points and 7 rebounds for the winners, Andrien Moerman had 19 and 12 rebounds, while Fabien Causer with 15 points led a balanced offensive effort for Brose Bamberg.