Narrow defeat after a big comeback

They came close to completing a fantastic comeback and making it a perfect trip to the Bosporus: After Wednesday’s victory at Efes (101–93), FC Bayern Basketball narrowly missed out on putting the finishing touch to a remarkable fightback 48 hours later at Beşiktaş Istanbul, losing 87–95 (35–53). FCBB, led by top scorer Lucic (17 points), were 28 points down at one stage in the second half, but fought back brilliantly to level the game at 75–75 and, thanks to 52 points after halftime, came close to defeating the Turkish runners-up (3–3).

Now the Cup in Hamburg

Anton Gavel’s team will travel directly to Hamburg on Saturday morning, where they will be aiming to reach the quarter-finals of the German Cup on Sunday at 6 p.m. They may be joined again by Jensen, Jokubaitis and Voigtmann, who were rested on Friday. Next Thursday, the Munich side will face Dubai’s team in their next EuroLeague game (8 p.m. at SAP Garden).

Stats Quotes 

Besiktas Istanbul – FC Bayern Basketball 95:87 (53:35)

Full Boxscore

Against the deafening enthusiasm of the 5,200 Beşiktaş fans, mistakes began to creep in toward the end of the first quarter (17–26). Center Zizic and five three-pointers helped the visitors turn an 0–11 run into a deficit. Offensive rebounds at their own basket and a lack of answers from beyond the arc at the other end made the problems obvious.

From 41–69 to 75–75

However, Bayern responded to the intense pressure with turnovers—leading 9–1 at halftime—and made good use of their fouls late in the game. Istanbul moved the ball well and continued to shoot at a high percentage: 30–47 in the 18th minute. This was going to be difficult.

The opponents played with greater physicality, and 93 seconds after halftime, Gavel called another timeout with the score at 35–60. His team nevertheless kept their heads up and fought back strongly. A 15–0 run, a 23–16 third quarter and suddenly the deficit was down to just 67–71, thanks to Thiemann, Baldwin, da Silva and Lucic, who scored 32 points.

Six minutes before the end, the captain actually tied the game at 75–75 with a four-point play. Lucic, Jessup (8), the composed playmaker Baldwin (14), Thiemann (12) and da Silva (14) deservedly played the full game, but they were unable to produce the final burst of energy against Beşiktaş, whose offensive quality flared up once again.

Quotes:

Anton Gavel, head coach of FC Bayern Basketball: “Congratulations to the coach and Beşiktaş on the win. When we were 26 or 28 points down, we started to play. That is not how you can win a game. But we showed character, we were able to come back and tie the game. However, it costs you a lot of energy when you are in such a deep hole, as we were. In the end, the guys who had worked so hard for us naturally ran out of energy. We have to get better at understanding how aggressively teams come into games. We were not ready for that at the start of either half. We are pleased with our comeback, but it was not enough. (…)

“The five guys brought us back into the game, and I had the feeling that this was the group we had been looking for. In the end, it was three three-pointers that put Beşiktaş on the road to victory. Maybe I should have brought some of the others back in at the end—you always know better afterwards. But I felt that the guys who had brought us back into the game deserved to finish it.”

Kamar Baldwin: “It was two different games. They were very aggressive in the first half, which is the way Beşiktaş plays. But in the second half, we came out and played physically and showed what we are capable of. We have to learn and grow from this and show it over 40 minutes. We were 28 points down and put together a strong performance in the second half to tie the game. Then they hit a few very difficult shots, and you have to give them credit for that. They came at the right time, and we were no longer able to execute our offense.”