“We still have one bill open with Alba,” said Bayern Munich President Herbert Hainer before his basketball players’ Euroleague duel in the capital: “We want to settle that this year.” Berlin, the national title holder of the last two years, did not give the cup winner a chance in the playoff final last season. But Hainer’s wish was fulfilled on Thursday evening in Berlin in front of 4658 spectators. The Munich team deservedly defeated Alba with 82:69 (37:36) and after their disillusioning start in Europe’s top-class competition with four defeats in a row, they have now won their third game in a row.
The Bayern basketball players, who were already plagued by injuries and corona infections, had to do without their playmaker Zan Mark Sisko for a short time, the fully vaccinated Slovenian had tested positive for the virus. According to the Munich team, the 24-year-old is “doing well under the circumstances”.
“We wanted it a little more,” said top scorer Darrun Hilliard
His teammates started unfocused, but countered Berlin’s 7-2 lead and were quickly 14: 9 ahead. But neither the Bavarians nor the Berliners were able to break away decisively afterwards. At 31:28 for Munich it got loud when their forward Vladimir Lucic lost the ball to Berlin’s Jonas Mattisseck, sprinted after him and Mattisseck fell hard to the ground close to the basket in a duel with Lucic. The referees whistled an offensive foul against Berlin, and from then on the audience gave Lucic a whistle for almost every action.
The game remained close, intense, competitive, but also disappointing from the point of view of the offensive rows, which failed too many throws on both sides. Berlin was 36:37 behind at halftime, but it wasn’t Lucic’s evening either, the Serb only scored three points. In return, Darrun Hilliard shone in the third quarter of Munich with four three-pointers. The US-American was already the top scorer of the game with 25 points, just ahead of Berlin’s Maodo Lo, the ex-Munich not only delivered an excellent game, but also 23 points. In the last minutes of the fourth quarter, the Munich team moved away because they met almost all of their threesomes, first Corey Walden, and finally Nick Weiler-Babb. “We wanted it a little more,” said Hilliard after the game at the broadcaster Magentasport. Bayern have now arrived in the Euroleague.
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