72-82 home loss to Bologna

After the high comes the disappointment: Bayern Basketball was unable to cap off their midweek EuroLeague success and suffered an unexpected 72-82 (32-35) loss to Bologna. Just 48 hours after their 95-94 win over Monaco, the visitors wore down Munich’s offense in front of 11,200 fans. The team lacked energy and hit only 11 of 41 three-pointers. The German champions' record now stands at 12-10.

The Bayern team has the weekend off. Next Friday, they return to action in Berlin for the German EuroLeague derby.

The Bavarians seemed to pick up where they left off with their three-point frenzy from Wednesday, as Booker (21 points) slammed a powerful dunk to make it 10-2 (4'). However, Virtus quickly adjusted, playing—just as Coach Herbert had warned—like a team with “nothing to lose,” backed by plenty of experience.

All the stats from the game

"The worst performance of the season"

More structured and aggressive on the rebound, Bologna took the lead (18-20/10'). Both teams struggled with concentration and energy in offense; after all, it was the second part of a Double-Week.

Virtus came out of the break much sharper, 39-48 (24'). The visitors remained ahead, grabbing offensive rebounds and playing more as a team than their opponents, 54-61 (33'). The Bayern shots kept missing, and the nervousness grew. And not enough stops: 59-71, just 4 minutes and 12 seconds remaining.

Giffey's three-pointer opened the energy bottle once more, with a 10-0 run in two minutes to make it 69-71 (1:48). But then Giffey had to leave the game, his fifth foul. Bologna got to the line several times, and Bayern's three-pointers just wouldn’t fall, again and again. It was over, the second home loss.

Quotes

Gordon Herbert: "First, congratulations to Bologna, they deserved it. We had five good minutes with good energy. After that, the energy was lost for many of us. I'm not happy with their mindset, not with the team play. We played on the court with five individuals, not as a team. And that’s the result. Too much 'me' and 'I', not enough 'we' and 'us'. That was the worst team performance of the season. I apologize to the fans for this performance, they've been great all year and deserve better. (...)

The guys are disappointed, but our actions didn’t look like we wanted to win. Two things bother me: effort and team play. Both were missing at different points in the game. It’s unfortunate that we’re not going into the weekend with a win, but we’ll come back. The guys have worked hard so far, this is just a bump in the road. You might look back at the end of the season and say that’s what we were missing. That’s sports, we have to look forward and learn from it. We will, this was a good lesson for us.”

Niels Giffey: "It felt like we lost this game, that Bologna didn’t win it. But they did a good job, they put pressure on Carsen and Andi a lot. If you look at the standings, this was definitely a game we should have won."

The Next FCBB Games

• Friday, January 24, 8:00 PM: EuroLeague Matchday 23, Alba Berlin – FCBB

• Sunday, January 26, 3:00 PM: easyCredit BBL Matchday 15, FCBB – Bamberg Baskets (BMW Park)

• Thursday, January 30, 7:00 PM: EuroLeague Matchday 24, Zalgiris Kaunas – FCBB

• Sunday, February 2, 4:30 PM: easyCredit BBL Matchday 16, FCBB – Alba Berlin (SAP Garden)

• Thursday, February 6, 8:30 PM: EuroLeague Matchday 26, FCBB – Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne (SAP Garden)