Strong start, thin air: It wasn't enough against Grünberg

The final score in the home game against Grünberg was 52–69, but the first half was still worth watching. We got off to a good start on Sunday at Lobeda West; we executed our plays much better than we had recently, and after the first quarter, we led 20–12. Congratulations to the Bender Baskets on a well-deserved road win.

Then came the second quarter. For a good six minutes, we didn’t score a single field goal; Grünberg went on a 9–0 run during that stretch, and at halftime we trailed 24–26. After the break, we fought back once more and took the lead at 32–31 in the third quarter. But in the next four minutes or so, we managed only one free throw, while Grünberg added ten points. We never recovered from that 33–41 deficit.

In the end, we ran out of steam. With only eight players in the game, it’s hard to keep that up for 40 minutes; Annika Heck was on the court for nearly 39 minutes. Grünberg was stronger under the basket; the rebounding battle ended 68–33, with Charlotte Kohl alone grabbing 17. Jada Smith scored 25 points—nearly half of our total.

Grünberg’s Frieda Schlebusch described the game afterward as follows: “We had a really hard time
at the beginning. We definitely had physical advantages. We were able to capitalize on them better in the second half—we rebounded well and stayed together as a team, even though we had some weaker moments here and there. In the end, we deserved the win, and we’re looking forward to continuing this momentum.”

After the game, there was another piece of news that concerns us more than any result: Annika Schwarz has informed us that she’s taking a break from basketball and won’t be available to us for the time being. We respect this decision and wish her all the best from the bottom of our hearts. Annika is one of us, and even a break won’t change that. Thank you for your time on the team.

The season is still young, and there’s always more to come. We’ll take the plays we executed better with us, and we’ll work on the rest step by step.

Jada Smith, 27:33, 25 | Annika Heck, 38:39, 3 | Jenna Rosanke, 11:19, 1 | Hannah Biwersi, 31:50, 8 | Lisa Hoppe, 23:48, 8 | Stella Nwaobi, 20:00, 0 | Laura Thiele, 30:23, 7 | Annika Schwarz, 6:28, 0