Bitburg’s Charles Whatley is congratulated by teammates after scoring the winning basket with less than 10 seconds to play during a DODDS-Europe high school basketball game in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Friday. Whatley stole the ball, drove in for a basket was fouled. He converted the three-point play to give Bitburg the 56-53 victory. (Raymond T. Conway / S&S)
Kaiserslautern served notice Saturday that this year’s European Division I basketball tournament might be anybody’s race by downing D-I league co-leader Wiesbaden 61-55 Saturday at Kaiserslautern.
Jeremy Marshall, a veteran of two European D-II champions at Hanau, scored 12 points and dished nine assists for Kaiserslautern, which lost its only conference game by a single point on the road to league leader Würzburg on Dec. 10. Würzburg is 3-0 in D-I play; Kaiserslautern is 1-1.
Saturday’s game was a nonconference matchup. Kaiserslautern (4-2) and Wiesbaden, which is 2-0 in D-I and 5-3 overall, play their conference game in Wiesbaden on Feb. 11.
The loss was the second of the weekend for Wiesbaden. Division II Bitburg beat the Warriors 56-53 Friday night at Wiesbaden on a three-point play by Charles Whatley in the closing seconds.
In other boys’ games:
Bamberg 75-60, Baumholder 73-64 (OT)At Baumholder, two D-III contenders split a pair of close games.
On Friday, Bamberg’s Dillon Baker scored 33 points as the Barons, 1-5 in six games against D-II foes, overcame a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to claim their second victory of the season.
“Their guards picked up,” Baumholder coach Spencer Bean said of Bamberg’s comeback, “and had excellent half-court pressure to force multiple turnovers and create fast breaks.”
The game was equally tight on Saturday, but this time it was Baumholder’s turn to rally, according to Bean. The Bucs trailed by eight with 6:30 to play. They were still down by three with four seconds to go when reserve True Davis was fouled on a three-point try. Davis sank all three free throws to tie the game at 55 and force overtime.
Davis ended with eight points; his teammate Sonny Clark scored 20. Baker settled for 23 for Bamberg.
Würzburg 44-52, Lakenheath 25-32At Würzburg, the defending European Division I champions stayed perfect in conference play behind 10 points from Jonathan Ortiz and nine from Cameron Hoffman.
Würzburg is 6-1 overall and 3-0 in D-I; Lakenheath remained winless.
Heidelberg 50-55, ISB 22-30At International School of Brussels, Heidelberg rebounded Saturday from a home upset against SHAPE the previous Saturday to claim its conference opener.
Point guard Chris Gamble led the way Saturday with 21 points, six assists and four steals.
Giessen 55-81, Hohenfels 53-48At Hohenfels, C.J. Battle scored 25 points and older brother Tim 24 as the unbeaten visiting Griffins rebounded from a close shave on Friday with a Saturday romp.
Tim Battle had 20 rebounds on Saturday and C.J. seven, along with eight steals.
Giessen (8-0, 2-0 in III-South) was outscored by Hohenfels (1-5, 0-1) 20-17 in the fourth quarter on Friday in their first single-digit victory of the season. It rang up a 45-point second half on Saturday to roll to victory.
Aviano 79-68, Naples 45-50At Naples, unbeaten Aviano (8-0, 5-0) set up a Feb. 3-4 home showdown against unbeaten Sigonella with easy victories.
Steals were the story on Friday, with Spencer Templeton and Junior Velez each pulling off eight, Andre Dean six and Angel Santan five. In Saturday’s conference game, Aviano’s Edmond Johnson had 10 rebounds, four of them followed by put-back baskets.
Sigonella 44-66, AOSR 26-37At Sigonella, the Jaguars (8-0, 4-0) kept pace with Aviano behind 22 Friday points from Bobby Lally and 29 Saturday points from Bernard Washington.
Mannheim 70-68, AFNORTH 52-38At Mannheim, the Bison stayed unbeaten at 7-0 and took the Division II-North lead at 1-0.
Rickey Gardner led the way Friday with 22 points; David Scarvone took Saturday scoring honors with 18.