Only treats on Halloween: FC Bayern Basketball had a perfect double-week in the EuroLeague, winning their second away game as well. The 84-71 (43-33) victory in front of 9,000 spectators in Lyon marked their fifth win on the seventh matchday and Villeurbanne's first home defeat.
This time, the leaders were Jo Voigtmann (9/11 rebounds), Devin Booker (16 points) as the top scorer, and Oscar da Silva (15 points). Teenager Ivan Kharchenkov, 18, shone over a solid 15 minutes with ten points.
On Saturday afternoon, Bayern travels to Braunschweig, where the week will conclude on Sunday (6 p.m.) with the third away game in six days. Their next home game is the showdown in the SAP Garden against Zalgiris Kaunas next Thursday (8:45 p.m.), with the Lithuanian team currently leading the EuroLeague.
Lyon-Villeurbanne - FC Bayern Basketball 71:84 (33:43)
- FCBB:Devin Booker (16 points), Oscar da Silva (15), Shabazz Napier (12), Ivan Kharchenkov (10), Johannes Voigtmann (9, 11 rebounds), Carsen Edwards (8, 6 assists), Nick Weiler-Babb (4, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals), Andreas Obst (4), Elias Harris (3), Yam Madar (2), Kevin Yebo (1), Danko Brankovic.
- Top scorer Lyon:Nando de Colo (19 points)
- RefereeCarlos Peruga, Rain Peerandi, Eduard Udyanskyy
- Attendance8,987
Voigtmann and da Silva strong on the boards
After about six minutes, the German champion took the lead for the first time (13-11). The first quarter was played cautiously on both sides, ending 19-17. Three-pointers from Kharchenkov and da Silva shifted the momentum to Bayern for the first time, making it 29-19 (14th minute).
The visitors controlled the rebounds and Lyon’s offense, stretching the lead to 35-21 (17th minute) and racking up 15 assists by halftime (ending with 25, 7 from Babb and 6 from Edwards).
Kharchenkov shines for 15 minutes
The restart also went well (51-36/22nd minute), though Asvel came back physically and emotionally—47-53 (27th minute), game on again?
Not really, as Kharchenkov had some great moments, especially in defense; Napier started heating up slowly, and Obst worked hard even without shooting luck (69-50/33rd minute).
When Booker increased the lead to 74-54 (36th minute), the arena fell silent. Coach Gordon Herbert was able to spread out the minutes, with another game coming up on Sunday.
Quotes:
Gordon Herbert, Head Coach of FC Bayern Basketball: "We’re taking the season game by game. It’s about improving every day. We’ll analyze today’s game and see where we can get better. (…) It’s still early in the season. It’s a process, and the most important thing is that we improve as a team week by week. We still have a lot ahead of us. This was a really strong performance by our team; the guys battled and fought hard. The players dedicated this game to TJ Parker before the match, and their fight here confirmed that dedication. Once again, I think our bench was strong, especially at the end of the first and the beginning of the second quarter. The bench did a really good job again."
Johannes Voigtmann: "To finish a double-week away with two wins and stand at five wins—we’re very happy with that. We’re exactly where we wanted to be. Today, we showed that we have a deep team with guys we can rely on, even if they haven’t played much yet: Ivan Kharchenkov had a great game, Kevin Yebo scored his first EuroLeague point—we had a lot of guys who contributed to the win today. Ending a double-week with two wins is always great. (…) Right now, there’s no point in looking at the standings. But we’re moving in the right direction, coming together as a team, and finding our rhythm. But the standings don’t matter at the moment."