MANNHEIM, Germany — Sonny Clark said his Baumholder Bucs will be in quest of some redemption in Saturday’s European Division II boys basketball championship game against SHAPE.
“I want to play SHAPE again,” he said Friday after the Bucs downed Vilseck 47-39 in the semifinals. “I want a rematch.”
Clark, who scored a game-high 20 points against Vilseck, was referring to SHAPE’s visit to Baumholder earlier this month that determined the II-North championship. SHAPE won 71-53 and 72-70 in double overtime to finish the regular season unbeaten and hand Baumholder its only losses.
SHAPE has stayed unbeaten in its first three days of this four-day event, downing Naples 64-51 in Friday’s other semifinal.
“We were down by five (points) starting the fourth quarter, and got down by eight,” SHAPE coach Steve Richardson said after the game. “We then went on an 8-0 run to tie it and turned it on over the last four minutes.”
Even with the necessity of having to come back Friday, the Spartans have crushed their five opponents here by an average margin of 21 points.
If the Bucs play defense against SHAPE as well as they did against Vilseck, though, don’t expect a big margin in the final. After the Falcons took a 30-29 lead with 1:20 left in the third period, Baumholder did not yield a point for the next 5:33. By that time, the Bucs were up 41-32.
“Our defense kept us in the game,” said Clark, who had two three-point plays during the run.
True Davis, who scored seven points, also converted a three-point play in the decisive span, and C.J. Roberts, who had six points, went 4-for-4 from the line in the final quarter.
Kyed Najdawi led Vilseck with 17 points. Kollin Jordan, who blocked three shots, scored 10, but picked up his fourth foul with 5:05 left and was slowed during the final going.
In the boys’ Division III event, still in pool play Friday, Hanau, Giessen and the American Overseas School of Rome were involved in a battle for the two berths available to their pool for Saturday morning’s semifinals.
Hanau is the most surprising of the trio. The Panthers, last year’s D-II champions but just 2-12 this season in D-III, surprised top-seeded Giessen 47-42 in overtime Friday en route to a 4-0 pool record. Giessen, the D-IV champion here in 2006, rebounded to rout AOSR 65-25 Friday afternoon to advance to the semifinals.
In the other pool, Rota and Hohenfels are the semifinalists. Rota was unbeaten going into its final game against Vicenza (1-2); Hohenfels was 3-1 after a 44-32 victory over Ansbach.
