Start of the second half of the season: In order to have a chance in Hamburg, the coach of the Mecklenburg basketball team demands maximum performance from his players.
Rostock (dpa / mv) - With two wins in a row and the triumph in the first leg, the Rostock Seawolves can confidently go into the game at the sporty ailing Veolia Towers Hamburg. The start of the second half of the Bundesliga season is on Friday (7 p.m. / MagentaSport). Despite the last five defeats of the hosts in the BBL and in the Eurocup, the Rostock head coach Christian Held warned against the duel with the Hamburg team, who "have gained talent with Anthony Polite compared to the first leg".
What the Hamburgers lacked in contrast to the Rostockers, at least in the last game, was a portion of luck. In the 103:105 in the Eurocup against the Greek representative Patras, the Towers missed the opportunity to win shortly before the end on Tuesday. The Seawolves, on the other hand, were able to win their BBL game against Mitteldeutsche BC last Sunday at the last second and thus finish the first half of the season in ninth place.
Held doesn't want to be fooled by the fact that the hoped-for turnaround for the better hasn't materialized for the hosts despite the change of coach from Raoul Korner to Benka Barloschky. "It's important for us to be at our absolute maximum if we want to have a chance in Hamburg."
The next challenge awaits the people of Mecklenburg on Sunday. From 3 p.m. the fourth-placed player from Oldenburg will be a guest in the Stadthalle. Although Held referred to the guests' longer preparation time for this game, he emphasized: "We all prefer playing to training."
