Bakken Bears set Danish record

Bakken Bears Aarhus are off to a triumphant start in the new Danish Basket Ligaen season, and not only because they claimed two hard-earned victories in the space of 48 hours. On Saturday, the Bears were taking on Svendborg Rabbits in their home season opener and registered an attendance of 5,440, the highest ever recorded at a basketball game in Denmark. The record crowd at the Jyske Bank BOXEN arena was fortunate to witness a 75-73 win of the Bears, although the home team’s play suffered somewhat from opening night jitters. 

Bakken Bears struggled offensively and trailed their visitors by as many as 11 points, 40-29, midway through the third quarter but Semaj Inge, with a lay-up 1:25 from the end, tied the scores at 68. Svendborg turned the ball over on the other end and Morten Sahlertz misfired for the Bears but took his own rebound and put the hosts ahead, 70-68, with 44 seconds left to the final buzzer. Veteran big man Nicolai Iversen split two free throws with four seconds on the clock to make it 75-73 and a long-range desperation shot by the Rabbits to win the game did not drop in, to the delight of the record-breaking local crowd. Jonas Zohore Bergstedt led the Bears with 14 points and seven rebounds, Iversen and Thomas Laerke had 12 points each, the former also grabbing nine boards, while Inge finished with 10 points.

Two days prior to their first game of the season in front of their fans, Bakken Bears had outscored Randers Cimbria 112-110 in a double-overtime thriller on the road, in their league campaign opener. Laerke and Inge had 21 points apiece while Iversen collected a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds.