The longest trip right off the bat: The Baskets kick off their season in Freiburg

The schedule hasn’t been particularly kind to us. The season has barely begun, and we’re already facing the longest road trip of the entire year. About 560 kilometers separate Jena and Freiburg—that’s roughly five and a half hours without traffic. Even the trip to Wasserburg—our second-longest journey—is a good deal shorter at about 420 kilometers. The game tips off on Saturday, September 26, at 5 p.m. in Hall 2 of the university’s sports center.

We don’t look back fondly on our last visit to the Breisgau region. In October 2025, we were on the road for nearly six hours and got stuck in traffic several times. In the end, the scoreboard read 54–81. In April, we got our revenge in our home arena with a 69–62 victory; Marta Miscenko scored 30 points that game. So our head-to-head record stands at 1–1.

However, our current roster bears only partial resemblance to the team from April. Captain Marta Miscenko has moved to the 1st DBBL to play for the halfit LIONS after two years in Jena, and Cianna Gloster, who averaged 14.6 points and 11.0 rebounds, is also no longer on the team. Laila Walker, Taylor Brooke Robertson, and Vanessa Kajan are also no longer on the roster. Alicia Rosanke is still working on her comeback. That’s a lot of points and rebounds that Head Coach Sandra Rosanke will have to redistribute.

But there are some new faces. Jada Smith is coming from Iceland and is expected to set the pace at point guard. Elza Bierina is already familiar with the 2nd DBBL South from her time with the Falcons Bad Homburg. At 19, Hannah Biwersi has already made her first appearances in the 1st DBBL and the EuroCup. Also joining us from Chemnitz is youth player Lisa Hoppe, who is set to support our partner club, Paradise City Jena e.V., in the Oberliga and us in the 2nd DBBL. Together with the players who have stayed on, they form the core of this season’s roster. Just how well this group meshes will be evident for the first time under competitive conditions on Saturday; after all, this team hasn’t played any official games yet.

Freiburg, on the other hand, is banking on continuity. Virtually all of last season’s key players are still on the team. Paula Paradzik was the top scorer with 12.6 points on 50.5 percent shooting from the field. Stephanie Wagner, 36 years old and a longtime national team player, hit 52.6 percent of her three-pointers and hurt us in the first leg by going 4-for-4 from beyond the arc. Under the basket, Frederike Martha Askamp averaged 5.9 rebounds per game, 2.8 of them on the offensive glass. So, consistent rebounding will be a must. On top of that, there’s Lara Gierlich, who dropped 15 points and 7 rebounds on us in the first game, Karla Busch, and the experienced Karla Gergelová. Scoring is spread across many players for the Eisvögel, and because several players are also on the first-division team, you never know exactly who will end up on the court.

Even if you can’t make the trip, you can still watch it live: The Toyota DBBL will stream the game on its YouTube channel (youtube.com/@dbblbasketball). Keep your fingers crossed for us—feel free to cheer us on out loud in front of your screen.