Some celebrate, some are frustrated!
Former basketball champions BMA356 Bamberg Baskets eliminated MLP Academics Heidelberg in the quarter-finals of the BBL Cup. There is a trembling triumph in our own hall – 72:66. Freak City were thrilled – and became the first entrants to return to the Top Four (21/22 February 2026). And for the third year in a row!
Height 2.36 meters: Teenage giant makes basketball history
The match started with a strange first quarter: the runner-up cup winner missed the start and had to settle for a 0:8 run from the start. Late in the quarter, the Baskets turned the game around, scoring eight consecutive points and turning a 10:15 deficit into an 18:15 deficit.
Similar play in the second half: Bamberg turned 20:21 into 28:21 in a few minutes. What goes up and down. They maintained this lead until the break – 34:27.
Will the Heidelbergers, who have had to make do without the injured DJ Horne and Paul Zipser, make a comeback?
The Heidelberg coach broke out in anger
Not at first. At 39:30 from Bamberg’s point of view, Heidelberg coach Danny Jansson took a time out – and it became very clear: “We made five moves in a row and each time two or three people didn’t know what we were doing. It’s not the right time. We need the right mindset!”
But angry remarks did not initially lead to a chase. Before the final quarter, the home team led 50:42.
In the end, Bamberg was awarded an incredible 37 (!) free throws. But only 23 can change it. Without these dismal odds, victory might have been achieved much earlier.
However, coach Anton Gavel’s team suddenly had to shake again. Heidelberg fought back to get within four seven minutes before the end. With three minutes remaining, the lead was +11. But that’s still not the verdict in this wild roller coaster game!
Dyn commentator Max Wittmann: “It wasn’t a great game, it was an intense game. Lots of free throws, lots of poses that went nowhere. Turnovers on both sides. This was a real cup fight.”
With 40 seconds remaining, Bamberg is only +3 ahead (67:64). Is this still wrong? Bamberg’s Ibi Watson took three goals – and scored! Heidelberg break time. 29 seconds remaining. Academics shortened the score to four (70:66). But they couldn’t get any closer as Bamberg, in the person of Cobe Williams, for once showed no weakness from the free throw line and carried the win as time went on.
And could play for another title in the spring. According to the law of the series, after the semifinals in 2023 and the final in 2024, this time it should be the championship title…
What about the people of Heidelberg? They are in an even deeper crisis, suffering a fourth successive competitive defeat and now having to concentrate on the league (16th in the table with just one win) and the Champions League (bottom of the group with just one win from four games).
