U18 Brose Baskets Bamberg clinched a spot in the semifinals of the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Torneig de Bàsquet Junior Ciutat de L'Hospitalet by knocking off host side U18 Torrons Vicens L’Hospitalet 49-79. Lars Lagerpusch collected 21 points and 12 rebounds as Bamberg improved to 2-1 in Group B. Arnoldas Kulboka added 15 points, Isaac Bonga chipped in 10 points, 12rebounds and 2 assists, and Nicolas Wolf scored 10 points for the German side. Bamberg out-rebounded L’Hospitalet 51-29 and also completely silenced the host side’s leading scorer as Nil Baques missed all 6 of his shots in going scoreless after hitting for 22 and 19 points in L’Hospitalet’s first two games. Elies Velasco paced L’Hospitalet with 21 points while Baques had 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals as the host team dropped to 1-2.

Gerard Rodriguez opened the game with a three-pointer for the host side with Lars Lagerpusch scoring 4 straight points as Bamberg moved ahead 3-7. Roger Orti pushed L’Hospitalet back in front 10-9 before Arnoldas Kulboka’s three-pointer had Bamberg up 10-12. Six straight Bamberg points increased the lead to 18-12. Elies Velasco first snapped a 3-minute L’Hospitalet scoreless drought and then nailed a three-pointer to cut deficit to 17-20 after 10 minutes. Bamberg extended the lead to 17-24 before another Velasco triple but the German side increased the margin to 8 points – 20-28. Velasco continued his strong game with 5 points to get L’Hospitalet to within 25-28. And another Velasco basket knotted the game at 31-31. Lagerpusch answered with back-to-back three-point plays – and a blocked shot in between – to push Bamberg ahead 31-37. The lead was 33-39 at intermission.

Lagerpusch continued his great game with 5 points, 2 rebounds and an assist in a 2-12 Bamberg start to the second half for a 35-51 lead. L’Hospitalet was able to fight the deficit down to 40-53. But Bamberg scored the final 4 points of the quarter and led 40-57 after 30 minutes. Bamberg did not let up in the fourth quarter with Bonga scoring 4 points to up the lead to 40-63. Velasco did score for L’Hospitalet but Bamberg scored the next 7 points to extend the margin to 42-70 halfway through the fourth quarter. L’Hospitalet did not get closer than 26 points the rest of the game.