Thursday, October 28, 2021
Prestige duel in Euroleague
Bavaria’s basketball players take revenge on Alba
Unlike the footballers, the basketball players from Bayern Munich deliver. In the first meeting of the season, they clearly defeat long-term rivals Alba – and settle an open score. The “frustrating” bankruptcy for Berliners only solidified in the last quarter.
The basketball players from Bayern Munich took sweet revenge on Alba Berlin in the Euroleague. The cup winner won the ailing German champions 82:69 (37:36) and refined his coup on Tuesday against the previously undefeated title candidate Armani Milan. In addition, as demanded by their President Herbert Hainer, Bayern settled the account of the lost final series against Alba for the championship title with their fifth competitive game win in a row.
Bayern led by only one point after the first half, and in the third quarter they began to break away by seven points. The outstanding American Darrun Hilliard (25 points) had his best phase. Bayern coached by Andrea Trinchieri are now in the Euroleague with three wins and four defeats, the goal is to return to the playoff. In the previous year, Munich had advanced to the quarter-finals.
Alba, who got off to a weak start in the Bundesliga and only finished eleventh in the table, fought back and fought his way up, Johannes Thiemann equalized to 55:55 in an increasingly heated atmosphere. 4658 spectators came to the Mercedes-Benz-Arena: They saw how a 4:14 run in the last quarter sealed Alba’s fifth defeat in the seventh game. Most recently, the champions lost at Olympiacos Piraeus. The best thrower from Berlin was Maodo Lo with 23 points. But the national player had too little support from his teammates against the vicious Bayern defense. Only Luke Sikma (10) scored double-digit points in the Alba team of coach Israel Gonzalez. “It’s a frustrating defeat,” said Lo at MagentaSport: “We had our rhythm, but in the end Bayern hit the important throws. The last two or three minutes were decisive.”