With one star injured and another having an off-night, sixth-man Lukas Meisner rose to the challenge to lead Hamburg Towers to their first-ever EuroCup victory.
Next man up Meisner leads in Hamburg's first-ever EuroCup victory
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Hamburg Towers showed some major character in collecting its maiden victory in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Not only did the German team get the job done on the road, but they won despite missing one of their top performers.
Center Maik Kotsar was limited to just 11:40 minutes due to a shoulder injury, but Hamburg still prevailed 96-100 at Lietkabelis Panevezys to move to 1-3 in Group A. Lukas Meisner rose to the challenge in collecting 20 points with 4 three-pointers, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal for a performance index rating of 25. He combined for 18 points and 7 rebounds in his first three games in the competition.
“We had a couple of people hurt so we just stepped up and made the right plays and got the win,” said Meisner, who is playing in the EuroCup for the first time as well.
And about helping his team win its first EuroCup, he said: “It’s history. That’s what we wanted for the team and organization. It’s just great to have this first win. We had good performances before, but this feels way better.”
Hamburg, which was playing in the German second division in 2018-19, showed its grit in a 97-106 Round 1 loss at home to Partizan NIS Belgrade. Pedro Calles’s men struggled in Round 2 in a 73-56 defeat against Joventut Badalona. And then Hamburg fell 91-97 versus MoraBanc Andorra in Round 3.
Not only was Kotsar out for the second half, but Caleb Homesley also wasn’t producing to his level. After going for 21 and 22 points in his first two games, he finished with 10 points.
Helping out Meisner was Robin Christen, who scored 13 points, including the game-securing free throws with 7.4 seconds left. He was held scoreless in the first two games of the EuroCup campaign and then had 7 points versus Andorra.
Meisner had two periods in the game where he also took it over for stretches. He scored 6 straight points in the third quarter to carry Hamburg from down 3 points to up 3.
Then in the fourth quarter, Meisner drained 3 three-pointers in a 7-22 surge in building an 80-92 lead with less than 4 minutes. And the rest of the team did just enough to fend off a late comeback attempt.
“I want to congratulate my players for the historic win, for history for this organization. We had an important player, Maik Kotsar, out in the second half. But they knew it and stepped up and found a way to get the W,” Coach Calles summed up.