Bayern congratulates Berlin on the title

The Bayern Basketball team congratulates Alba Berlin on the championship: The Munich team, weakened by injuries, could not transfer the momentum of their 90-60 road win from Friday into another winning performance just 44 hours later and lost clearly 96-81 at the Audi Dome. A slow start was the hosts' undoing in a fast-paced duel in front of 5,500 tireless FCBB fans and they lacked the energy for a turnaround in their 84th outing of the season despite great fighting spirit until the siren.

Again without four starters

As announced, the squad remained unchanged, as Radosevic (infection) was still in hospital on the day of the game and Lucic (adductors) and Hilliard and Walden, who have been missing for months, are not yet fit. Without the quartet, the FCBB fell behind quickly this time, 13-2 and in the second quarter 48-26 (18th).

17 turnovers, too few rebounds and a clearly worse three-point quota for a long time testified to the exhaustion. Alba scored at a high percentage against the Bayern defense and also survived the last surge of the EuroLeague quarterfinalist (76-63/33rd) with confidence. Nevertheless, the audience honored the performance of its team for minutes with much applause.

Fanfest on Monday at 17:00

The team and coach will say goodbye to the fans once again at the end-of-season event at the Audi Dome on Monday (June 20): Starting at 17:00., there will be plenty of free beer from Paulaner and bratwursts from Feinkost Käfer (limited number free of charge), as well as autographs and selfies.

More Info 

Points per quarter Bayern - Berlin: 17-26, 19-26, 18-24, 27-20.

Stats: Two-point shooting: 65% (FCBB) // 54% (Berlin); Three-point shooting: 39% // 52%; Free-throw shooting: 83% // 73%; Rebounds: 27 // 31; Assists: 11 // 29; Turnovers: 17 // 12.

Quotes:         

FCBB head coach, Andrea Trinchieri: "First of all, I want to congratulate Alba. In this series they had more energy and were better than us in three out of four games. I don't think it makes sense to analyze the game but take a detailed look at the season. It's never pleasant to end the season with a loss in the finals, but it happens. I don't think I could have asked for more from my players. We focused our energy in game three, where we delivered a very strong performance. But today we no longer had the mental and physical energy to match Alba's intensity. What I also said to my players: I am very proud of them. Nobody likes to lose, but there are things we can't control. We overcame many, many adversities, five, six times, but we never accepted that: that we started the season when we had half the squad out; that Hilliard was out twice with big injuries, Walden didn't come back after Corona; Weiler-Babb had to lie in a dark room for 40 days. We played the finals when four of five starters were out. We fought, but it wasn't enough. (...) They simply couldn't give any more. (...)

These games, these defeats, should be fuel for the next final and to get better. That's the only thing I want to take from this defeat: I want energy to come back. (...)

If you take into account the circumstances, we were incredible, really incredible. I don't like to explain anything about that now. Because they won, we lost. They lifted the trophy and we try to cope with the bitter feelings. That's sport, that's life. But that would be a superficial look at what happened. We went through things that everyone didn't even know about. That's why I'm very proud of how my team, how it stuck together despite everything - that was the great success of this season, that defines it. With everything we were missing, we still won game five in Bonn when no one believed in us; likewise game three in Berlin when we knew Leon (Radosevic) was in the hospital when we left. I just hope that this vicious circle ends, because it already started last year when the thing with Paul (Zipser) happened. He's back, but he's not really back. (...) So I don't want to talk about success, I want to talk about values and culture and how proud I am of my players. All these feelings now should be fuel for us to come back better. (...)

The question of how we can better prepare for a long season (with EuroLeague playoffs and BBL finals) will be on our minds throughout the offseason."

Nick Weiler-Babb: "Berlin had a hell of a series in the playoffs and they also played very well throughout the year. And then they stepped it up at the right time and played great as a team as well. We didn't win any titles this season, but we also had to deal with extreme adversity, injuries and difficult circumstances. We stuck together as a team and fought. We never broke down. I have to give a very big compliment to my team and the coaching staff, they kept us together. We will see what the future holds for me. (...) I'm totally happy for Paul Zipser - he fights every day to come back, and it just makes me happy to have him back here and to see a smile on his lips there."

Israel Gonzalez, Berlin coach: "When I took over the team, I wanted to improve them, and I think we improved the most over the season and became champions. (...) We didn't have a good start, but I had no pressure. We had good chemistry all year. We are cup winners, first seed, which is difficult when you play Euroleague. We won because of our bench - although you can't tell who are bench players with us."

Game recap:

In the all-or-nothing game, Trinchieri initially sent on Nick Weiler-Babb, Ognjen Jaramaz, Nihad Djedovic, Deshaun Thomas and Augustine Rubit, as he had done in the coup in Berlin two days earlier. Alba made an 11-0 lightning start as Bayern's shots missed their target. Captain Djedovic stopped the run with a basket at 11-2 and three minutes of play had already passed. The hall was loud and pushed the Munich team to a 7-0 run, the atmosphere was fantastic (13-9/5th). Tamir Blatt scored repeatedly from the three-point line and secured the Berlin lead (19-11/6th). The Bavarians struggled with scoring and the Berliners' lead approached double digits (22-13/8th). Five turnovers for the FCBB in the first quarter which ended 26-17, were simply too many.

The Berlin fans, who had come along, cheered because their team continued to steal points with the help of Bayern's carelessness - Trinchieri then tried to stop the trend with a time-out (32-18/13th). The FCBB were desperate to find their rhythm, but the fighting spirit was certainly there. The scoring was just not what it need to be to win the game halfway through the quarter and the Munich team had only three points on its account. Berlin, on the other hand, had both its defense and offense purring, and the Bavarians had far too little to counter the visitors' run. To the dismay of the fans in the Audi Dome, the deficit grew to 20 points (48-28/18th).A timeout stabilized the Trinchieri team and Augustine Rubit delivered points to make it 52-36 after 20 minutes.

Bayern can't get the offense going

The second half started with a bang as Rubit dunked to make it 52-38. Weiler-Babb followed up with a a nice power move, but that was not the turning point, because Alba responded with a 7-0 run, timeout Bayern (59-40/22nd). In principle, the events of the first half began to repeat themselves: Munich had open shots but did not hit them. It was simply not meant to be and the Berliners extended the run to 10-0. Thomas stopped that with a three-pointer to make it 64-43 (26th). A little later, Trinchieri called timeout again because Berlin brought down offensive rebounds several times in one attack and then drilled a three-pointer (67-43/26th). In comparison with Game 3, the omens were reversed: Berlin now appeared confident, the Bavarians simply could not get any closer (69-47/28th).  The loss was already beginning to show in view of the consistently clear deficit of over 20 points - the frustration made one or two heads go down and the quarter ended 76-54.

FCBB shows character - Zipser scores Bayern's last basket of the season

The Munich team mobilized all its remaining reserves and surprised Alba with an 8-0 run to the delight of the tirelessly cheering fans - time-out Berlin (76-62/32nd). "Let's go Bayern, fight and win!" Sounded a thousand times from the stands. But chould there really still be a comeback? The Berlin suqad needed more than three minutes for the first bucket in the final quarter, but the deficit was already considerable. Jaleen Smith's fifth three-pointer was a stab straight into the fan's heart  and only five and a half minutes left on the clock left little hope in Munich. Weiler-Babb hit a three which Oscar Da Silva dryly countered with one of his ownl (88-68/37.). The decision was made, now it was at most a matter of cosmetics. The Munich fans rose and thanked the players for a great fight and a great season. Paul Zipser rewarded this encouragement with a three-pointer for 81:93.

Congratulations to Berlin for the German Championship.

(c) Eirich, Pahnke & Stickel