Full house, Victory 7: Bayern 86:71 against Efes

It's Christmas in the BMW Park: The arena is sold out for the eighth time in a row, the seventh victory in the premier class—things can continue this way for the in-form Bayern basketball team. With the score of 86:71 (50:41) against the two-time titleholder Efes Istanbul, Pablo Laso´s team keeps pace with the guest (7:8). Now, a challenging task awaits on Friday (8:30 PM) against last year's Final Four participant Monaco.

In front of 6,500, the cup winner shone for a long time with a high three-point percentage and significantly improved in defense after the break (30 Efes points). Efes' top star Larkin was held to 10 points; the top scorers for the German cup winner were Andreas Obst (17) and Isaac Bonga (15).

All numbers about the game

Obst with a perfect percentage

Four dunks in the first eight minutes not only contributed to generous donations to the 'Dunks for Tomorrow' fund by BMW for the benefit of SOS Children's Villages but also led to an initial 19:12 lead. However, Efes exploited weaknesses in Munich's defense and equalized at 22:22 (12th minute). FCBB responded with three-pointers, shooting at 60 percent until halftime, with Andreas Obst making all four of his attempts.

Lead grows to 65:47

The Bayerns now played dominantly, also improving in rebounds against the guest weakened by substitutions (without Beaubois). At 65:47 (26th minute), the game seemed to be decided, but only in the final quarter, with another six points from Obst, the strong Turkish resistance at 79:65 seemed without a real chance of a turnaround (35th minute).

The quotes:

Pablo Laso, Headcoach FC Bayern Basketball: „Congratulations to my players, I think the victory was well-deserved. We won all four quarters, and defensively, we were even better than offensively. We held them to 71 points, considering the talents of Larkin and Thompson. We were able to move the ball well in the attack. Although we might not have been as aggressive with the ball, we made shots, and Andi had a great evening. He's a shooter, and we found him. I am very happy about the win, but I know that we will face another top team in less than 48 hours. (...) I've heard that we haven't had all players healthy here for a long time. That's naturally something a coach wishes for. We have a tough season, and we need everyone, like Niels and Dino today, who may have had a few minutes but still gave us breathing room to stay solid in the game. Efes had injuries and had to play many players for an extended time; for example, Larkin played for 33 minutes. It's important that all the returnees quickly get back into the rhythm with us now."

Andreas Obst: „It feels naturally good to come back after the injury. I wasn't sure if it would be enough because I've only had a few training sessions and haven't regained a hundred percent of my mobility. But I did my best, and as a team, we had really good moments today. My teammates made it very easy for me; I just had to run around a bit and got open shots. Offensively, it was very good for us for most of the game; we distributed the ball well and created open shots. Defensively, we had some problems in the first half, especially with rebounding, but that improved in the second half, and it was the key to success."

Isaac Bonga:  „The key today was that we played very disciplined and stuck to our system for 40 minutes. We made a lot of shots in the first half, and the good thing was that we managed to do the same in the second half. We also played very aggressively, grabbed offensive rebounds, and created fast breaks."