The 46ers thus missedtheir last chance to reach the postseason tournament. „We knew hehad to give 110 per cent“, said the Baskets top scorer, Josh Mayo,the outstanding man of the match. „That’s also our plan now againstOldenburg, and we’ll see what we can achieve in the playoffs.“Despite loud cheers and chants by the hosts’ fans, the Baskets kepttheir calm. Instead of letting the atmosphere get to them, theypresented the Gießen players with a challenge that proved too muchfor them. The 46ers found no remedy against the Baskets centerJulian Gamble, and not against Ryan Thompson, whose performancegraph has clearly passed the low point.

Josh Mayo conducted thematch and scored from afar, whenever somebody allowed him slightlytoo much space. The more ahead the Bonn team got the more desperatethe 46ers tried to keep up. With 17:31 they went into the firstquarter break, and Ken Horton opened the second round with apenalty shot thanks to a complaining Jahenns Manigat. As MauricePluskota then (31:40) played a technical foul, Gießen coach DenisWucherer could only shake his head wearily.

With a score of 57:39and an awesome field throw rate of 83 per cent (78 per cent formafar), they went into the half time break. Norman Polas Bartoloopened after the changeover with a layup and a three-point fieldgoal. When Josh Mayo scored the 65:39, the 100 Bonn fans in thearena took over. On Monday the Baskets are expecting Oldenburg forthe last match of the regular season. Telekom Baskets: Ojars Silins11 (3 Dreier), Filip Barovic, Ryan Thompson 17/1, Johannes Richter2, Julian Gamble 10, TJ DiLeo 8/1, Florian Koch 11/1, Yorman PolasBartolo 11/1, Josh Mayo 20/5, Ken Horton 12/3. (Org. text: Tanja Schneider,Translation: Mareike Graepel)