When in team sports, a back-and-forth game is mentioned, it usually refers to an exciting match. In the case of Veolia Towers Hamburg's away game against Vizemeister ratiopharm Ulm, it was literally the case. And in the end, the Wilhelmsburgers lost to 72:81 (17:29, 15:13, 19:19, 21:02) and were also the narrowly defeated. This means that the team of coach Benka Barloschky can no longer directly reach the playoffs of the top six teams in the BBL, which was already completely unrealistic beforehand – as with healthy common sense now finally also an entry into the Play-ins (places seven to ten). It was therefore a completely unpleasant Saturday evening for the Wilhelmsburgers, who were stuck on the 13th place. The had begun a second before the end of the first quarter, when the Ulmer Christopher Ledlum swung his elbow towards the stomach of Zacharie Perrin. Apart from the fact that such actions are always unnecessary, this was not at all understandable. The Towers center had successfully dunked, Ledlum in the aftermath neither provoked nor touched. Whether it was affect, boredom or malice – Ledlum's behavior was ridiculous. The referee trio checked the scene afterwards on the video monitor, then decided against a disqualification of the American. The contact was too soft, there was no intention to hurt Perrin intentionally. So Ledlum was only charged with an unsportsmanlike foul. But the tone for a rough game was set, in the second quarter Ulm's Nelson Weidemann pushed a contact lens from Hamburg's playmaker LJ Thorpe onto the court, but accidentally. Weidemann was then again in the spotlight, when the national player pushed and threw away the ball of Towers guard Devon Daniels, and waited in vain for the foul whistle. This again brought his coach Ty Harrelson to the field, who was charged with a technical foul. It was a bit too much. The more you allow it, the less it looks like basketball, Barloschky complained, who also got a technical foul for meckering (in the half-time over the line of the referees). At the same time, he told his team, which was missing captain Benedikt Turudić (hüftbeuger), that nothing would change. We have to go through. But they didn't. The guests lost the game finally not because of the hard start of the new fifth-placed or the outbuildable referee performances, but due to their own insufficiency. 16 times the Hanseaten gave the ball away. The three-point shooting percentage of 24.2 percent (eight of 33) was miserable. The hope that arose after a 10:0 run on 46:51 (27.) was only short-lived. With such a quote, you can't make up for a weak start, said Martin Breunig, who compared the match to a kind of war. In this, his team at least didn't give up. We fought hard. I hope that was seen. That was seen.