Banged up Bavarians suffer first loss in BBL

The basketball players of FC Bayern Munich lost 83-82  to second-place Oldenburg on the 20th BBL gameday and thus suffered their first defeat. In the sold out hall with 6.000 spectators, the champions, weakened by injuries started miserably falling behind by 16 points (27-11) but fought back in the hectic final quarter and led a few seconds before the end, before Oldenburg won the game at the free-throw line. The Bavarians had 16 turnovers and greatly missed Devin Booker and Stefan Jovic as well as their second best scorer Nihad Djedovic (back problems).

After a game-free weekend, the FCBB will continue next week in the EuroLeague against defending champion Real Madrid (Friday, February 22).

Points per quarter Bayern - Oldenburg: 13-27, 27-23, 20-17, 22-16.

FCBB Stats: Petteri Koponen (18 points), Derrick Williams (17), Maodo Lo (14), Danilo Barthel (11/8 rebounds), Vladimir Lucic (9), Braydon Hobbs (5), Nemanja Dangubic (5), Leon Radosevic (3), Robin Amaize, Marvin Ogunsipe, Alex King (dnp) and Nelson Weidemann (dnp).

Quotes:
FCBB head coach, Dejan Radonjic: "Congratulations to Oldenburg and my colleagues on their victory. In the first half we played defensively very, very badly: without focus and with many mistakes, 50 points allowed. Whereby they also played very well. In the second half it was completely different, we came back and had a very close game at the end. Of course, it's always important to have all the players here, but that's all I want to say. It goes on."

Petteri Koponen: "In the first half we defended very badly, that was the reason why they had 50 points at the half and led. After the break we played with more energy. Oldenburg played well and in the end had more luck. Hats off to Paulding, who hit the free throws and won it for them."

Maodo Lo: "We didn't present ourselves well at first, but in the end we fought back and could have own. Now we simply have to analyse the first quarter when Oldenburg took us by surprise, and then it goes on."

1st quarter
In Oldenburg the Bavarians had to do without their playmaker Stefan Jovic and yet again with no Booker or Milan Macvan - shortly before the start ,record player Djedovic joined them on the bench after the warm-up. For him, Nelson Weidemann was the first player to join the league leader's squad. Bavaria started with Maodo Lo, Petteri Koponen, Vladimir Lucic, captain Danilo Barthel and Leon Radosevic. In the first quarter, they had to fight against their own mistakes and had a total of six turnovers, while the hosts did not record a single one (balance at the end: 16/Oldenburg 8). The outside shots did not find their way into the net either and that is never a good sign for Bayern (7/25 threes in total). Despite the bumpy start, the Munich team were able to equalize the game in the middle of the quarter with a basket by Lo (10-10/6.). Afterwards Oldenburg punished the mistakes of the Bavarians and went on a 9-0 run to take a 19-10 lead. For the rest of the quarter Bayern only managed three more points and suffered one of their worst quarters of the season.

2nd quarter
After a weak start, the Bavarians found the right answer in the second section of the game. Finally, Koponen and Lo made their shots from beyond the arc and the team started to crawl back into the game.  Williams brought the deficit back into the single digit range with some good hustle and brought the score to 39-30. Barthel brought the visitors up to within six points with a three but at the end of the half the score was 50-40 for the home team.

3rd quarter
Dejan Radonjic seemed to have found the right words during the brea as Braydon Hobbs, Radosevic and Lucic quickly shortened the deficit to 50-45 after three minutes of the second half. The good start was particularly favored by a higher intensity on defense. But  Oldenburg also found their rhythm on offense and maintained a double-digit lead.The best highlight of the game was again provided by Williams, who, after Barthel's pass, completed a monster reverse Alley Oop. The Bavarians finished the quarter with another Barthel to Williams connection and the score was 67-60 in favor of Oldenburg as the teams headed intot he final quarter. 

4th quarter
In the final section the Bavarians were able to catch up early thanks in large part to Williams and with five minutes to play Oldenburg held a slim one point lead, 71-70. It was the American, too, who, after a fastbreak pass from Nemanja Dangubic, took the first lead since the first quarter with an Alley Oop-Dunk in the final  minute. It was also Dangubic who received a debatable fould while going trying to grab a rebound. Eight seconds before the end, the Oldenburg team sent Koponen to the line at 80-80. The Finn transformed hit both shots but the Baskets got the ball again and Paulding forced a foul in the last second on a three-point attempt and with ice water in his veins he he hit all three free-throws to pull off a huge win for the second place team in the BBL.

(Photo-Credit: Duda & Stickel)