With an ultimate effort, the Heroes basketball players have forced a tie-breaker for the championship. In a thriller Leiden was narrowly defeated 61-52. The Bossche team had to win otherwise Leiden would have been champion. Sunday will be decided in Leiden who will be champion.
The star was center Thomas van der Mars with 14 points, including the crucial 55-52 and 57-52. “I have no words for it. We had our backs against the wall, but it was fantastic in this sold-out Maaspoort. Now we go for game 5!”
After a difficult first half (29-31), Den Bosch turned the game around in the second half. A small gap quickly turned into a small lead. Unlike the previous three games, Heroes had a defensive grip on the opponent from Leiden.
“We experience very solid play”, said Heroes coach Eric Braal afterwards. “We, but also Leiden, played very well defensively. If we can maintain this mental discipline, we also have good chances to win on Sunday.”
In the fourth game in six days, both teams had quite a few problems to score. That was especially visible in the many missed three-pointers. In the end, Den Bosch was smarter by not taking any more three-pointers at the end.
