Following their down-to-the-wire loss to Canada last night, this time, Germany managed to come away with the win in the men's bronze medal game at GLOBL JAM, beating BAL Select 77-72.
15 hours earlier, Germany gave up a 14-point lead in the final five minutes of the must-win game against Canada. Turnovers and an inability to find the bottom of the basket on their looks from deep plagued them. But they bounced back with a strong performance Sunday, turning it over only 16 times and knocking down their shots in the clutch to secure the win.
“The energy last night was obviously down, frustrated, not real good. This morning we had a meeting to talk about it, we just had to clear our heads, this is what happened, let’s move on," German coach Gordon Herbert said. "It’s a great honour to put the national team jersey on and we gotta represent our country in an honourable way.”
Elias Baggette led the way with an efficient outing, scoring a game-high 20 points on 9-for-12 shooting while dishing out three assists. Joshua Obiesie scored 13 of his own while Simonas Lukosius scored 12 and grabbed seven rebounds.
Though it may have come too close for comfort, invoking shades of their loss to Canada, a strong performance from their bench unit — particularly Baggette and Obiesie — allowed the European squad to hold steady. They won the battle of bench points 51-29.
"He grew as we went along," Herbert said about Baggette. "Today he was more assertive, he took control of the game, led the game better today and played with more confidence. He made some huge plays down the stretch.”
Victor Ezeh led the way for BAL Select, scoring 15 points off the bench and going 4-for-4 from deep. 18-year-old Matthias M'madi scored 13 and dished out three assists while Emmanuel Okorafor scored 10 and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, including seven offensive rebounds.
BAL Select scored the first basket of the game off a mid-range shot from Deng, pulling up from the top of the key after a solid stop-start move. Germany missed 12 of their first 13 shots and allowed BAL Select to start the game up 6-0.
Those issues didn't plague Germany alone. Both teams struggled to make a shot early on as they combined to go 3-for-23 in the first six minutes, leading to a low-scoring first quarter, 14-13 in favour of BAL Select.
After going 1-for-10 from range in the first, Germany took the lead in the second quarter as they started to attempt more looks at the rim, scoring their first three baskets on lay-ups. They would go on a 15-4 run to start the quarter but Amr Zahran would respond, knocking down two timely three-pointers in a row to keep the deficit in the single digits.
Following four turnovers from BAL Select in the last three minutes of the second quarter, Germany would end the frame on a 13-3 run to cement a 41-29 lead going into halftime.
Lukosius would score nine of his 12 points in the final five minutes of the half, however, was unhappy with his overall performance, saying that he could have done much better in his first start for the German team.
“I’m disappointed for sure, I shot terribly," Lukosius said on his play at the tournament. "This was probably my first better three-point shooting night of the tournament. I don’t know what else I can say, I had higher expectations (for myself).”
Their ball movement was particularly impressive in the second quarter, dishing out eight assists. Mattisseck, who leads GLOBL JAM in assists per game, dished out two while diminutive guard Johannes Patrick found three dimes of his own in the quarter.
BAL Select would come out of halftime hungry, going on a 13-6 run fuelled by five points and a nice dish in transition from M'madi.
Though Germany would hold onto their lead, two high-flying blocks from the University of Texas, San Antonio guard Dhieu Deng would make sure that the game would remain in single digits at the end of the third quarter, with BAL Select trailing only 54-47.
Ezeh found his rhythm in the fourth quarter, knocking down three three-pointers, including one through contact to draw the four-point play.
Baggette responded with 11 of his 20 points coming in the fourth quarter and a nice assist on a lob to big man Norris Agbakoko.
“I tried to calm things down because the last few games, things have gotten kind of hectic," Baggette said when asked about his mindset in the clutch. "Just try to get the best shot possible, doesn’t matter if it’s me or anyone else. I trust everybody to hit a shot, today it was me.”
BAL Select would bring it within three points with just over a minute remaining but a mid-range jumper from Baggette with 40 seconds left gave Germany a six-point lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Though they had hoped to meet Kentucky once more in the finals, the German squad is heading home with their head held high following the win in the third-place match, with many saying that the energy in the room is back in a positive place.
“Now it’s much better. Going home with a win always feels good," Baggette said. "We got everybody together one last time to get our energy back and leave it all out there.”
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