Meisner fuels Hamburg to 92-86 triumph over Slask

Hamburg Towers survived a valiant comeback by Slask Wroclaw to grab an important 92-86 victory and protect its home court on Wednesday.

Regular Season

Round 15 of 18

game Slask Wroclaw vs Hamburg Towers

Regular Season

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Hamburg TowersHHT

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Slask WroclawWKS

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Overview

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Hamburg nearly wasted a 21-point third-quarter lead but held on to improve to 6-8 in Group A. Lukas Meisner led the way with career-highs of 23 points, 5 three-pointers, 12 rebounds and 3 steals for Hamburg, which hit a club-record 17 triples. Justus Hollatz tallied 14 points and 6 assists, Zach Brown scored 13, Maik Kotsar had 12 points and Robin Christen finished with 11. Slask fell to 3-11 despite Travis Trice’s 29 points - 21 of them coming in the second half - and 10 assists. Aleksander Dziewa collected 21 points and Kerem Kanter contributed 14 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.

Dziewa scored the first points of the game from the foul line for the visitors and Hollatz got Hamburg’s first basket on a layup. Travis Trice followed with a three-pointer for Slask and Kanter had a three-point play but Maxi DiLeo, Hollatz and Brown all drained triples and Hamburg was up 13-11. Slask kept close and was leading 17-19 after Lukasz Kolenda’s three-pointer. Hamburg absolutely dominated the rebound situation with 9 offensive rebounds in the first quarter, including 2 which led to triples from Meisner and Brown for a 23-19 lead after 10 minutes.

Slask had problems scoring early in the second quarter and Hamburg started pulling away with Caleb Homesley hitting from deep and Kotsar converting 4 free throws for a 32-19 lead. Kodi Justice finally hit a three-pointer to snap a 4-minute scoreless drought. Meisner answered from deep and DiLeo free throws increased the lead to 37-22. Slask could not get enough stops to get into the game and another Homesley three-pointer pushed the margin to 42-26. Hamburg’s offense dried up for more than 2 minutes and Slask pulled within 42-30. The hosts woke up again just in time from the outside with Brown hitting one three-pointer and Meisner making two more triples. The margin was 51-33 at the break.

Seth Hinrichs opened the second half with a three-pointer as the home side’s lead grew to 21 points. Slask put together some stops and Dziewa scored 6 points and Trice and Jakub Karolak both knocked down triples in a 2-16 run to trim the deficit to 56-49. A Kanter three-pointer got the visitors as close as 60-54 and the score was 64-58 after 30 minutes.

Hamburg found the start to the fourth that it needed with Christen sandwiching three-pointers around a Meisner dunk and the advantage was 72-58. Trice would not let Slask go down without a fight with two three-pointers to get back within 76-70. Christen hit another three-pointer and Meisner’s dunk made it 81-70, but the guests continued to fight; Kanter and Dziewa converted three-point plays to trim the margin to 81-78. Hollatz came up with a three-pointer only to be matched by Trice to make it 86-83. Hamburg executed better down the stretch with DiLeo converting a layup and after Dziewa’s missed three-pointer, Meisner delivered a dagger triple for a 91-83 advantage with 24 seconds to play.