Basketball - Debacle for Ludwigsburg basketball players in Champions League
The MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg have missed out on direct qualification for the second group stage of the Champions League. The German Basketball League club lost 60:80 (26:42) at King Szczecin on Wednesday evening. As a result, first place in Group D is no longer within reach ahead of the final game on December 20 (8:30 p.m.) against leaders Athens. The best scorer was Yorman Polas with 14 points.
Ludwigsburg got off to a very weak start and quickly fell behind. In the first quarter and for large parts of the second period, the club from Swabia missed countless attempts and was also weak in defense. Only just under 25 percent of all two-point shots landed in the basket. The home side pulled away accordingly. That did not change, even though the shooting percentage improved slightly, until the break, when the MHP Giants went in 16 points behind.
The German club got into the game better after the restart and cut the deficit to ten points. The score of 43:53 after three quarters gave the visitors the option of a conciliatory end. However, that was immediately over again. A couple of quick points by the Poles broke Ludwigsburg's morale.
The Swabians must therefore finish second or third in the group and survive a play-in phase after the end of the first group stage in order to reach the round of the best 16 teams. Athens have already qualified as group winners.
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Source: www.stern.de
