Rostock (dpa / mv) – Even after the fifth defeat in a row in the basketball Bundesliga and the fall to twelfth place in the table, the Rostock Seawolves are not alarmed. However, head coach Christian Held insisted on critically assessing his team’s performance in the 90:99 (48:61) defeat at EWE Baskets Oldenburg on Sunday. And that despite the fact that his team had won the third period of the game by a five-point difference.

“Unfortunately we didn’t pull it off in the last quarter,” complained the coach. And added: “A top team like Oldenburg sees that immediately and uses it directly. It’s then very difficult to win here – especially when you allow 61 points in the first half, which is too much.”

Finnish international Elias Valtonen, who was signed at the beginning of last week, was also unable to change the outcome of the game with 14 points in his Seawolves debut. Around 90 seconds before the end, the Rostock team had the chance to reduce the gap to six points and put Oldenburg under pressure again. But Held admitted that Oldenburg deserved the win: “We were always fighting, we fought back and didn’t give up.”