After a true thriller against Donar, the Heroes basketball players have qualified for the final for the championship of the Netherlands. In the Maaspoort it became 81-72 for the Bossche basketball players. In the final that starts on Saturday, Heroes will face defending champions Leiden.
Heroes turned it into an old-fashioned nail biter against the Groningers in the well-stocked Maaspoort. The first quarter was for Donar (14-20). In the second act, Heroes turned things around. Led by American Clay Mounce, who scored no less than 15 points this quarter, a deficit was converted into a large lead at halftime (44-34).
After the break, the Groningers quickly came close and a margin of three or four points remained throughout the second half. A three-pointer from Shane Hammink a minute before the end (74-66) turned out to be decisive. Outstanding Hammink was happy and sober about the series against Donar afterwards. “We were just better. I’m glad we made it to the final.”
Maxhuni was the top scorer for Den Bosch with 17 points, Den Bosch had five players with 13 or more points.
It was the third game this week in the best-of-five series. Den Bosch had won the first two duels on the basis of a tight defense (77-65 and 73-67).
Record champion
For Den Bosch, which is the record holder in the Netherlands with 16 championships, it will be the 28th time that the team has reached the final for the championship. The last title dates back to 2015. Heroes also played in the final last year, even then Leiden was the opponent. They then became champions relatively easily.
This season Den Bosch and Leiden are evenly matched. In the league they played against each other twice and they also did in the cup tournament. Both teams won two games. In the cup tournament, Heroes went on target sado to the final, which was later lost to Donar.
After the lost cup final, the performance of Heroes came to a head. Due to a number of defeats against Belgian teams, Den Bosch lost the lead to Leiden and lost the home advantage in the final.
Sporty dip
The lesser performances were in large part the result of the injury of American forward Mike Carlson who is very important for the team this season. He suffered a knee in his thigh more than five weeks ago. Then a vein burst. In the hospital even the word amputation was mentioned.
Fortunately, it didn’t come to that, but it did require a 35-centimeter cut in his thigh to let the blood flow. Carlson has recovered physically and cautiously resumed training last week, but the final series against Leiden seems to come too early. Morgan Stilma, Carlson’s direct replacements, broke a bone in his foot a week ago and is certainly absent.
Despite a series of tough competition matches and the lack of two players, coach Erik Braal managed to tactically prepare his team for the play-off semi-final against Donar, which had been in good shape lately. The emphasis at Heroes was on defense and that also seems to be the recipe for the final.
Salient detail: Shane Hammink, who is working on his first appearance at Heroes, will face his father Geert, the coach of Leiden, in the final.