The 5,500 fans of Bayern Basketball showed good spirits after the 83-81 loss against Armani Olimpia Milan. All involved would have preferred a lttle less drama than what they had suffered through together with the team in the Audi Dome in the final act of an exciting EuroLeague evening. Nick Weiler-Babb, who was talked to personally by general manager Marko Pesic, was inconsolable because of the two missed free throws for the presumed and deserved victory with only 3.8 seconds left on the clock. The German-American is listed at 82 percent from the line in Europe's highest competition. The crowd of 5,500 gave him and the rest of Andrea Trinchieri's emergency team a big send-off.
The Munich team will now look to tackle the longed-for first victory next Friday in Belgrade at Red Star. "We showed many positive things today and in the same way we are looking forward," said FCBB guard Ognjen Jaramaz shortly before midnight. However, before that there is a tough Bundesliga game on the schedule on the road and already for Saturday evening at 20:30: Bayern, weakened by injuries have to play the Towers in Hamburg on their fourth game in seven days. The hall is sold out with 3,400 spectators.
Othello Hunter is out
Trinchieri has had far too little help these days and rather the medical team and the abundantly busy physios Thomas Bäuml and Johannes Schöttl. The latest additions to their treatment list are Isaac Bonga (recovering from foot surgery), Elias Harris (recovering from adductor problems), Zan Mark Sisko (thumb injury, infection) and Augustine Rubit (lumbar spine contusion), followed by Jason George (infection) and Othello Hunter (thigh muscle injury). Veteran Hunter was injured early in the second quarter, he will be examined again after a good week of rest.
The performance of the short FCBB rotation against the celebrities of the Italian champions rightly filled Trinchieri with pride. However, the personnel situation will not change for Hamburg either. At the Towers, they will nevertheless try to extend their perfect win streak in the BBL to four.
McCullum leads the Towers
The hosts have a 2-1 record after a close 81-78 loss to start in Berlin and two clear wins against MBC (91-74) and in Bayreuth (95-79). On Sunday, however, they lossed in the Cup quarterfinals against Ludwigsburg (92-86) and Tuesday against Ankara (88-83) the second win in the EuroCup.
Top scorer for Hamburg is guard Kendale McCullum (15 ppg, 7.3 apg), who transferred from Giessen, ahead of US forward Yoeli Shields (14.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg), Lukas Meisner (11.7 points), youngster Len Schoormann (11.3) and James Woodard (from Ludwigsburg/10.3). National center Jonas Wohlfahrt-Bottermann has eight points and 5.3 rebounds per game so far.
Next home appearance for Bayern is the Sunday after next (Oct. 30, 15:00) for the Halloween family game against Crailsheim.