Team Defense Keys Ulm Win over Chemnitz!
ratiopharm Ulm held Chemnitz scoreless for a 7 minute stretch in the third period and broke the game open during that time with balanced offensive production in a strong team performance that resulted in a convincing 88-62 win claiming sole possession of first place and emerging from the "Battle of Unbeatens" with a perfect 9-0 record in 2.Bundesliga South play. Ulm's team defensive play was the star of the game stifling the 99er attack for 31 total points and 8-25 from the floor in the second half. Ulm's 8 man rotation accepted the challenge and all 8 men made significant contributions to the win led by Captain Emeka Erege who was outstanding for Ulm on both ends of the floor and topscored with 17 points along with 8 rebounds.
Ulm celebrates their "Siege" with fans!
A packed Sportszentrum Kuhberg crowd of over 2400 spectators anticipated a tremendous basketball game between the two unbeaten teams and in the early going, as expected, action was intense and physical. Both teams fought for every inch and worked extremely hard on the defensive end. Possession for possession, offense and defense, Ulm and Chemnitz locked horns with first place on the line. Pounding the ball inside to post players Maksym Shtein and Jeff Gibbs, Ulm played smashmouth offensive basketball in the first few minutes of the big game. Officials set the tone early allowing extremely physical play at both ends. Players from both teams adjusted and nothing soft was accepted in the paint.
Several inside finishes slipped off the rim or rimmed out and Chemnitz was able to bust out into their excellent transition game. Carl Mbassa aggressively attacked from dribble drives, pushing in transition and with active cutting. Jaivon Harris pushed the ball and looked to get the tempo up. Big man Mirko Virijevic hit a smooth high-arching turnaround fadeaway lofting his shot way over a challenging Jeff Gibbs. Ulm defense did a fine job of taking away easy baskets in transition and worked hard to stifle the Chemnitz halfcourt offense. After a tight 18-16 first ten minutes, Ulm players looked to get some breathing roomin quarter two. Jonathan Levy stepped up to drill two three point shots and Maksym Shtein finished strong inside. Emeka Erege hit a tough pull up J from the right baseline and sank two free throws. Also stepping up, Ulm point guard Martin Thuesen drilled a three dished out assists and played excellent one on one defense against a hard driving Niner point guard American David Doubley. Ulm charged ahead but Chemnitz answered immediately. Ulm defenders were beaten by hard cutting Chemnitz off baseline "Flex cuts" as Mbassa and Klink collected buckets. Christian Grosse fired back for Ulm with a transition pull up J from the left baseline and a crafty running bank shot floating down the right lane line after using a ballscreen. Stretching the lead, Ulm's 18-15 second quarter gave them a 36-31 halftime advantage.
Ulm PG Martin Thuesen was excellent with 9 assists and strong defense.
Ulm had played a strong twenty minutes with a defense-first mindset. Key in this defense-first mentality, Jonathan Levy hounded star 99er scoring guard Jaivon Harris. In a marquee matchup, Levy held Harris to 1-7 from the floor in the first half allowing only one three point make off an endline inbound play. Harris did hit a perfect 4-4 from the foul line after creating opportunites with his skillful dribbling, but overall, Ulm defenders were outstanding defensively in taking away transition and Harris in the first half. Fouls were also quickly becoming an issue with Chemnitz as Avi Kazarnovsky, Mirko Virijevic and Christian Klink were all saddled with two fouls in the first half. Ulm missed several easy opportunities inside in the early action and the team made several adjustments at halftime to help the team execute and finish inside.
Starting the second half, Ulm simply snuff out the 99er offense holding their previously unbeaten opponent scoreless over an impressive 7 minute defensive stretch. During this time, Ulm began to break the game open with strong drives and finishes from Jeff Gibbs along the left baseline, Emeka Erege from the right wing down the gut and from Jonathan Levy from the left side. A strong Ulm start forced an early Chemnitz timeout and a switch in 99er defense. Chemnitz went to a 1-2-2 halfcourt trap falling back into zone in an attempt to rattle the ratiopharm rhythm. Fortunately for Ulm, players stepped up and executed extremely well against the traps, pressure and rotation. While the Ulm offense began to build up steam, the teams power was generated by outstanding TEAM defense. Containing the ball, closing out, beating screens, hedging on picks, rotating in help, taking away the three point line, Ulm defenders played with high intensity and recorded two shot clock violations during the impressive stretch. Jeff Gibbs, Emeka Erege, Maksym Shtein and Jonathan Levy all ripped down ferocious rebounds to finish off possessions.
Captain Emeka Erege (10) finishes a slashing layup in the 3rd quarter. Erege was excellent on defense and topscored with 17 points and 8 rebounds in the win.
But the most important event was Emeka Erege's fourth foul. Forced to remove the captain who had been so instrumental to team success in so many ways, Ulm Head Coach Mike Taylor inserted veteran wing Jan Sprunken into the action with roughly two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Up to that point, Sprunken had played well, but was scoreless in the game. By the final horn ending the third quarter, Jan had tallied 8 points and helped break the game wide open with perfect perimeter shooting. Sprunken drilled a three from the left corner off ball reversal to get hot. What seemed like second later, the ball found Jan deep on the left wing; feeling it, he casted off a high arching, ceiling scraping, smoothly rotating, contested NBA three --- SPLASH! Jan's excellent defense in the run included a steal and an amazing blocked shot that triggered a two on one break finished by teammate Levy. As exciting as Sprunken's sweet shooting was, the highlight of the third quater came in the last second. A Chemnitz fast break in the final seconds resulted in an errant pass and turnover. Ulm inbound from the far sideline across from their bench 3/4 court with one second showing on the clock. Hot, Jan Sprunken took the ball from the official and surveyed the floor --- what could happen in one second? Like a quarterback, (although more like Uncle Rico than Joe Montana) Sprunken spotted Ulm guard Christian Grosse streaking down the center of the court with a step on his defender. Sprunken sailed a soft touch pass even Montana would be proud of. Behind the defense,full speed ahead and straight, Christian veered to the left wing around 16' where he caught Sprunken's strike in stride. In one motion, Grosse faced up to the basket and let go a buzzer beating jumper to the delight of the Ulm crowd. The 22-11 third quarter, keyed by outstanding team defense and offensive production from the bench had earned Ulm a sturdy 58-42 lead.
Jonathan Levy explodes to the basket by Chemnitz big man Christian Klink. "Jono" was a key on both ends of the floor for Ulm.
Knowing the game was far from over, Ulm huddled between quarters and focused on continuing their attack. Re-inserting the starters, Ulm hoped to break the game open, not just maintain the lead. Chemnitz fought back as Jaivon Harris continued to attack using the dribble. Harris sliced down the lane scoring and drawing fouls despite strong Ulm defense against him. He also hit one three from the left wing after a loose ball scramble that saw him sneak open for just enough space to let one fly. Mirko Virijevic also was productive for Chemnitz and Andreas Endig gave his team solid minutes in the second half. Because of foul problems, the Niners were often forced to play smaller lineups in the later stages of the game and often matched up the aggressive and rugged Carl Mbassa against powerful but undersized Jeff Gibbs. Working hard to stem the tied, Chemnitz head coach Torsten Loibl used all of his timeouts early to stop Ulm runs. The Niners also changed defenses using a run and jump while in man and full court trapping actions along with their 1-2-2 to zone. Ulm ballhandlers effectively handled the pressure AND attacked the defenses getting several easy baskets in transition incuding a baseline one handed power dunk by Maksym Shtein and two beautiful give and go plays between Erege-Thuesen and Erege-Sprunken. The exciting action continued with athletic blocks by Gibbs and a slashing baseline dunk from Jonathan Levy off of excellent penetration from Grosse. Ulm fans celebrated the convicing win as the clock ran out putting the 88-62 result in the books.
Jeff Gibbs "punches" this 99er shot off the wall. Gibbs was strong for Ulm scoring 16 points with 9 boards in the win.
For the game, Ulm shot 49% from the floor (33-67) and 74% from the foul line (17-23). Ulm players outrebounded Chemnitz 34-27 and dished out a season best 22 assists in the win. After hitting 9-21 shots attempted in the paint in the first half, Ulm players adjusted extremely well to hit a powerful 16-22 in the second half. Aside from holding the Niners scoreless over a 7 minutes third quarter stretch, Ulm defense limited the 99ers to 38% (20-53) field goal shooting for the game and 11 third quarter points.
A balanced offensive effort saw several players step up throughout the game. Emeka Erege's 17 point 8 rebound effort combined with outstanding defensive play keyed Ulm's win. Jeff Gibbs added 16 points 9 rebounds and physical defensive play with 3 fantastic blocked shots. Jonathan Levy also was excellent defensively against highscoring 99er guard Jaivon Harris while adding 14 points and 6 boards to the Ulm win. Center Maksym Shtein also established his presence with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Point guard Martin Thuesen played an terrific floor game distributing a season best 9 assists while playing well defensively against Chemnitz point guard David Doubley. From the bench, Jan Sprunken, Christian Grosse and Florian Mobius all made significant contributions to the win. Sprunken scored all 8 of his points in the game breaking second half run sparked by back to back three pointers to energize his team. Grosse pitched in 12 points including the amazing third quarter buzzer beater and Mobius gave the team good play on both ends of the floor.
Ulm center Maksym Shtein hits this first half hook shot over Chemnitz defenders. Shtein played strong finishing with 13 points with 7 rebounds.
Prior to the game, it seemed far more action would take place between the two organizations off the court than in the game itself --- a dispute errupted over an illegal Chemnitz player and the teams had a disagreement about allotted tickets for the 99er fans. Ulm manager Thomas Stoll was at the center of both issues filing a protest with the German basketball federation over the use of new Niners wing Konrad Tota. Without going into tremendous details, the dispute arose over Tota's use of a Polish or Canadian passport. Ulm filed and played the game under protest. In a seperate issue, Chemnitz management and Ulm management went head to head over allotted tickets for the 99er fans. Every team in 2.Bundesliga South are entitled to 10% of arena capacity for big games. As an example, 99er fans who traveled in their 2 fan buses were entitled to 220 tickets at Sportszentrum Kuhberg. Unfortunately, Chemnitz apparently forgot to request the tickets by the two weeks advance deadline and ratiopharm Ulm sold the tickets to excited Ulmer fans. Earlier in the day, the solution was discovered as Ulm financial manager Andreas Oettel granted Chemnitz 80 extra tickets for an overflowing crowd. Ulm beefed up security and hired Ulm city Police to patrol in and out of Sportszentrum Kuhberg. The majority of Chemnitz fans were excellent support for their 99er team. In fact, many arrived at the game dressed in suit and tie in a response to internet comments earlier in the week. Loud and supportive, the 99er fans made a positive contribution to the game. Unfortunately, three intoxicated Chemnitz fans were arrested and taken to local jail when they got out of hand. Thankfully most everyone from both sides was well behaved and the action on the floor far overshadowed the pregame activitied off it.
Ulm's win over Chemnitz gives them sole possession of first place in the league and keeps the team unbeaten at a perfect 9-0 to start the season. One important outcome of the victory is that Ulm sits alone atop the league for the first time since being relegated into the 2.Bundesliga South in 2000-2001. Ulm has shared first place several times over the last few years, but not until Friday's win over Chemnitz could Ulm claim first place by themselves.
Mike T enjoys his 99th career win in Europe.
An interesting side note, the Ulm win was the 99th career coaching victory in Europe for Mike Taylor who is early in his fifth overseas campaign. A special game for the Ulm team and organization, the win was extra special for Mike T who earned win number 99 against his former team, the Chemnitz 99ers! Early into his fifth season coaching professionally in Europe, Taylor has amassed a 99-49 overall record and 85-17 record in Germany and 63-13 record in Ulm.
While the Ulm win in nice and first place is good, 21 games remain in the season including several big opponents in the next weeks ahead. While ratiopharm Ulm can feel great about their accomplishment of claiming sole possession of first place, the journey is far from over and the team must re-focus for another intense game next Sunday at Heidelberg where last seasons road win was the first victory at Heidelberg in Ulm team history. Clearly, the 2.Bundesliga South has much more exciting basketball ahead and Ulm looks forward to the challenges ahead over the next weeks. Follow all the fast breaking ratiopharm Ulm basketball action all season long on Taylorhoops.com
GO ULM!
MIKE T
