The Telekom Baskets Bonn have reported back after their false start, the final of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) is open again.
The winner of the main round won the one-sided second duel against frightening favorites ratiopharm Ulm on Sunday thanks to a brilliant performance 104:75 (45:29) and made it 1:1 in the best-of-five series. It continues on Wednesday (8.30 p.m./Sport1 and MagentaSport) with the first of two games in Ulm.
Five professionals from Bonn, who are playing for the first championship title like Ulm, scored in double digits. Finn Delany scored 23 points as top scorer, Sebastian Herrera (17), star player TJ Shorts (16), Jeremy Morgan and Deane Williams (both 13) also scored well. Ulm conceded the first away defeat of the current playoffs, the otherwise strong Brazilians Yago Dos Santos (9) and Bruno Caboclo (5) hardly came into their own.
At the start of the series on Friday (73:79), Bonn suffered the first BBL defeat since mid-January. This time the hosts started out concentrated, defended strongly and pulled away early. Shortly before the end of the first quarter, the lead was in double digits for the first time (24:14/9th minute), but Ulm quickly found an answer – they equalized with a 10:0 run (26:26/15th).
It was a game of runs. Champions League winner Bonn pulled away again after eleven consecutive points before the break in the Telekom Dome, which was again sold out with 6,000 spectators. “We slept through the first game a bit. It’s completely different today,” said center Leon Kratzer before going into the dressing room at “MagentaSport”.
Bonn increasingly dominated after the change of sides and steadily increased their lead. The Telekom Baskets also easily coped with the disqualification of Michael Kessens for assault. Ulm, who knocked champions Alba Berlin and cup winners Bayern Munich out of the playoffs, were beaten early.