The London Lionswere left disappointed as Hamburg stun the Brits at the Copper Box Arena.
The homeside managed to erase an 16-point deficit, but Mark Hughes’ last gasp bucketmoves Petar Božić’s side to 8-3 in this season’s EuroCup.
Hamburg arrived on a cold Wednesdayevening in the capital, prepared to take on a Lions side who have beenphenomenal in Europe this season. However, the visitors will head back toGermany after picking up a surprise victory in East London – winning just theirsecond game of their EuroCup campaign.
The home team came into the gameon a high having thrashed the Leicester Riders just three days prior. The Lions,who beat Hamburg 100-94 in the reverse fixture two months ago, were unable toreproduce the performance on home court.
Hamburg started the opening 10minutes on the front foot and quickly grew a convincing lead as the Lions wereslow to find their feet.
The visitors were proving toughto break down on defence and showed their physicality on both ends of the court.This rewarded them with a 12-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second, London eased intothe game and showed signs of limiting the deficit with dynamic offensespearheaded by the reintroduction of Sam Dekker.
While the Lions offense began toroar, their defence was letting them down as they struggled to containHamburg’s joint lead-scorer, Aleksander Dziewa. The Polish big man scored 15points on the night and proved to be a problem for the home side.
Hamburg’s lead was cut to eightpoints going into the half as the Lions began to believe that the comeback was onfollowing a dominant performance from Gabe Olaseni.
The GB international lead theLions in scoring with 24 points, whilst shooting all 10 of his free throws inthe game.
Momentum had significantly swungmidway through the third quarter as the hosts looked set to close the gap whichhad narrowed to just six points.
Reigning MVP Dekker continued togive his all as the Lions’ offense was in full swing, moving the ball fluidlyand getting the better of the Hamburg defence.
With just six minutes left inthe game, the Lions finally took the lead for the first time. It looked like London’smomentum was going to get them over the line, pulling off yet another upset inthis season’s EuroCup.
Hamburg, however, continued tofire back - taking the game into the final minute with the score level.
In the dying embers of the game,which was tied at 81-81, the Lions failed to capitalise on a possesion thatwould have put them in a great position to pick up their eighth Europeanvictory of the season.
With 10 seconds left on theclock, Hamburg moved forward and put the ball in the hands of Mark Hughes. TheAmerican converted with 1.3 seconds left in the match, giving the home side aslither of a chance to tie or win the game
Despite the Lions developing abit of a reputation for finishing strong and closing out games this season, themite of the Hamburg Towers proved to be too much for the hosts – who take thirdEuroCup defeat of the season.
The Lions will now set theirsights on Friday’s game against Cheshire Phoenix in the British BasketballLeague.
Watch the highlights from London Lions vsHamburg Towers here.
