Bundesliga
Basketball:
Walter
Tigers Tübingen vs. Telekom Baskets Bonn (22-01-05)
Report:
Basketball
It
was our last Saturday in Tübingen and we were scheduled to
see some basketball action; Walter Tigers Tübingen taking
on Telekom Baskets Bonn, in the first league of the Basketball-"Bundesliga".
Little did the Walter Tigers know that a whole group of South
Africans would be supporting them.
We
had the whole day free to do what we wanted and met only at 17h45
at the train station. So of we went to the "Sporthalle TÜ-Arena,
Europastraße" to do a little cheering. On asking where
our seats were the answer came, "We have standing seats",
which meant no seats - only standing.
The
team from Bonn looked pretty in pink, but pretty wasn't enough
to beat our Tigers team - or so we thought. With big optimism
and very little knowledge of the game we started cheering for
our Tübingen team, with Mbali as their most loyal supporter.
At
the start of the game I was aware of only 3 facts concerning basketball.
1.)
2 teams.
2.)
fighting over 1 round ball and
3.)
2 hoops on either side of the court.
I
might add that these facts were obtained from seeing the movie
Space Jam starring Michael Jordan. At that particular stage in
the first minute of the game, I must confess - I felt a bit like
Bugs Bunny or any other clueless looneytoon, for that matter.
The
whistle blew at 18h30 and we were ready for 40 minutes of cheering.
The TV was there so we had to make a good impression. The first
quarter went well for the Tigers and we were all smiling. In the
second quarter we saw a strong fight back from the Bonn team.
The third quarter was awful and our team started trailing by quite
a couple of points. Luckily the Tigers fought back in the fourth
quarter, but it was too little too late. Unfortunately the Walter
Tigers lost by 67 to 80, when the final whistle blew.
It
was a great experience and I am most grateful to have learned
to appreciate yet another type of sport.
(Report
by Hanlie Beukes, University of the Free State. Bloemfontein.)
