The FC Bayern Munich basketball players achieved their first victory in the Final10 tournament after a failed into the tournament: 110:79 (51:35) against the weakened third of the main round from Crailsheim. Every player in the convincing Bavarians had minutes to play in front of the eyes of Honorary President Uli Hoeness, but this time the outstanding feature was Center Mathias Lessort: the Frenchman achieved a personal BBL best with 20 points. Access Ismet Akpinar also made his first appearance in the Munich jersey and was in the starting five; the national player scored nine points and two assists in just under 14 minutes on his debut.
The Bavarians now have three match-free days, and the FCBB will continue on Friday (12.6, 16.30) against BG Göttingen, who were successful in their opening match. On Sunday (14.6, 19.00 hrs), the German champions will conclude the group phase of the BBL Final tournament against Oldenburg.
FCBB fans will once again be able to watch these matches together at the drive-in cinema of the "Audi Urban Cinema" at Munich Airport.
HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim vs. FC Bayern Basketball
- Topscorer Crailsheim:Sebastian Herrera (27 Punkte)
- FCBBMathias Lessort (20 Punkte, 9 Rebounds), Maodo Lo (17, 3 Dreier), Vladimir Lucic (14), Petteri Koponen (9, 3 Dreier), Paul Zipser (9), Ismet Akpinar (9), Alex King (8), Diego Flaccadori (7), Danilo Barthel (6, 5 Rebounds), Leon Radosevic (6), TJ Bray (5) und Zan Mark Sisko (5 Assists).
- RefereeToni Rodriguez, Gentian Cici und Steve Bittner.
Points per quarter Bayern - Crailsheim: 26-11, 25-24, 35-21, 24-23.
Stats: – Two-point shooting 70% (FCBB) // 50% (Crailsheim); Three-point shooting: 55% // 38%; Rebounds: 33 // 22; Assists: 26 // 15; Turnovers: 13 // 19.
Quotes:
FCBB head coach,Oliver Kostic: "Congratulations to my players for a good game. Everyone gave a good answer after the first game. But this was just one game now, a first step in a long tournament. But it was a good performance that can show us the way forward. After the long period without games we have to keep working hard every day and improve further to be a contender for the title at the end of the tournament. After this long break we still have to improve some details to get the team in the best shape. This includes not only the offense and defense but also the mentality. I'm very happy for Mathias, he has worked hard and must continue to do so."
Mathias Lessort: "The most important thing was to show character and do better than we did against Ulm. We scored a lot of points, but especially on defense we showed character. Against Ulm we allowed 95 points, which is not good. The whole team misses Greg Monroe. But I'm not the only one who has to replace him, we have to do it as a collective, because we miss another important player in Nihad Djedovic. If we keep playing like we did today, we can make a lot of progress in this tournament."
Ismet Akpinar: "We showed a different side today. Still, with all due respect to Crailsheim, they fought hard. But to allow 79 points to such a decimated squad is too much in our view. We need to improve our one-on-one defense and we can do a lot better in pick and roll as well. The first thing I can influence is the pressure on defense and that's what I want to do. I'm glad I got minutes today."
1st Half
The FCBB started the game with Petteri Koponen, Vladimir Lucic, Danilo Barthel, Mathias Lessort and Akpinar at the point guard position. In the beginning, as in the first game, Bayern showed some lack of concentration on defense, but this was turned off after the first Kostic time-out. The defending champions started a 15-0 run when the score sat at 11-11 and ended with a 26-11 score at the first quarter break. The Munich team, who on paper were guests in the Audi Dome, held a big lead all the way through the second quarter. Compared to the first game, the hosts presented a much improved performance under the basket and hit 72% of their two-point shots (against Ulm: 38%). 51-35 at half-time.
2nd Half
Lessort showed up big right at the beginning of the second half, leading the team both on the court as well as emotionally. With an 8-0 run at the end of the third quarter, Bayern held a 30-point lead for the first time in the game and the final quarter was relatively stress free. In the final ten minutes the game went back and forth as Bayern played with a deep rotation (each player was given at least seven minutes of playing time). In the end, the score against the Hakro Merlins was 110-79.
The course of the game can seen in the Liveticker
Photo Credit: Duda
