The sky over Gran Canaria was still black when the Bayern basketball players left their hotel early Friday morning but the mood was great despite another short night. The German champions could celebrate the first road victory in the EuroLeague season with an 89-74 win over the Spanish team. Again without playmaker Stefan Jovic (ankle), with an ill Vladimir Lucic (gastrointestinal) and a concern to literally slip on the Canarian court (moisture). With now four wins after nine games FCBB remains very solidly in the middle of the EuroLeague standings.
In the BBL, the task now is to expand the perfect record of 8-0 at home in the Audi Dome on Sunday and bring an intense week with four games to a successful end. But their opponent, the Giessen 46ers, have been the surprise team in the easyCredit BBL and are third in the standings so far. "We are happy that we won the away game, which was not easy in every respect," said Bayern top scorer Maodo Lo (22 points/9 of 10 shooting from the field/5 assists). "Now comes the league again, our main task, therefore we will try on Sunday with all energy to do our job.
>>> tipico: Bet on the game now and save up to 100€ bonus!
Meanwhile, Gießen is in good shape. Coach Ingo Freyer and league top scorer, John Bryant (18.4 ppg/10.8 rpg) have once again put together a fesity, offensively oriented squad (92 ppg) that has six victories out of eight games. Two weeks ago they nearly won again in Bamberg in overtime. But last weekend they triumphed in the prestigious Hessen-derby against Frankfurt 91-90.
At the beginning of October Bayern won the cup round of the last sixteen against the 46ers 106-92. ex Bayern player, Brandon Thomas is second in scoring for the team behind Bryant (14.9 ppg) followed by US-guard Max Landis (14.3 ppg). Giessen is also strong as a rebounding team with 38.4% success rate which is a few ticks better than Bayern at 34.6%.
>> To the Liveticker