The German league basketball team Niners Chemnitz underpinned its playoff ambitions with a narrow home win in the East derby. The team of Head Coach Rodrigo Pastore beat Science City Jena by the narrow margin of 76:73 (51:39) thanks to a three by Corey Davis in the final second. Chemnitz thus spoiled the debut of Mike Taylor, who replaced Björn Harmsen as Head Coach of the club from Thuringia in midweek. Kevin Yebo was the Niners' best scorer with 19 points in front of 4,911 spectators and they now stand at 28:32. Joe Wieskamp scored 22 points for the relegation-threatened Jena side (20:40).
The Niners started with a lot of energy and took the visitors by surprise in the opening spell with a high tempo and an outstanding three-point percentage. After a 21:0 run, the home side was already 23:3 ahead (6th minute). However, the first changes then led to a break in the game. Whereas Chemnitz made more and more mistakes, the visitors were increasingly successful with their attacks on the basket. They produced a 13:0 run at the start of the second half to take a 52:51 lead.
