FC Bayern München Basketball are the German League champions for the fourth time in club history and now have two trophies for the season. The showdown in the fifth and final game of the series against Alba Berlin was a decisive victory for the home team 106-85 and showed a very impressive end to the year for BAyern. 6,500 fans packed the Audi Dome, among them President Uli Hoeness and they experienced a dominant game from start to finish and never allowed Berlin a chance in the game.
Six players scored in double-digits for Munich and the team had 29 assists on the night to underline an impressive offensive performance. Nihad Djedovic was the top scorer on the night with 19 points and Danilo Barthel was named series MVP. IN the coming season their team will once again play in Europe's top league, the EuroLeague since they won a wild card spot for the 2019 season.
Points per quarter Bayern-Berlin: 32-19, 26-20, 28-22, 20-24.
FCBB Stats: Nihad Djedovic (19 points/3 trio), Jared Cunningham (16/5 assists), Devin Booker (14), Danilo Barthel (12), Vladimir Lucic (12), Reggie Redding (11), Alex King (8), Stefan Jovic (5/6 assists), Maik Zirbes (5), Anton Gavel (4), Karim Jallow and Amar Gegic.
Quotes:
Dejan Radonjic, head coach of FCBB: "Congratulations to Alba for an excellent season. We played great today and completely controlled the game and we understood how to perform. We now had 14 games in the playoffs, which was very difficult because we only had two matches for all players except Macvan. But now we can enjoy and celebrate. Of course I didn't take an easy job here, but now everything is okay and it was worth it. I'm very happy about that and I want to thank everyone in the club."
Danilo Barthel: "Everyone in the team deserved my MVP award. It goes to the entire team. We played so well today and I'm just happy that we are German champions. We were even more aggressive and dominant today. Thank you to all who have supported us."
Nihad Djedovic: "This title means an incredible amount. This is my fifth year with Bavaria and this club works incredibly hard. This is the culmination of a difficult season."
Reggie Redding: "We are all very exhausted after these ten months but the goal was to win this last game of the season - and we did it. You can't prepare or train for game five anymore, you just have to do it, and that's what we've got. "I'm so happy with my boys, it feels great."
Anton Gavel: "This title means a lot, it rewards our hard work throughout the season. The playoffs were very difficult, even from the first series against Frankfurt. We went through highs, but also lows, so now I'm all the prouder with the guys that we've managed it. Now we celebrate properly."
Devin Booker: "That was the last game of the season, you have to give everything, all emotions have to go, and that's what we did. That was the best game ever. We knew we had to get started right from the start. We had a hell of a game, we left everything on the court."
Vladimir Lucic: "We were just ready for this game today. With all the ups and downs, with the problems we had, we have grown as a team and have shown that we are the best team in Germany".
1st quarter:
Coach Radonjic started the last game of the season with Stefan Jovic, Jared Cunningham, Vladimir Lucic, Danilo Barthel and Devin Booker. The five turned out to be a good pairing as they started very well with a 3-0 lead which quickly ballooned to 8-3 after four minutes of play. Jared Cunningham brilliantly blocked a three-point attempt by Marius Grigonis by jumping unbelievably high in the air and as he came to the ground it seemed that so did Berlin's chances of winning the game. Bayern scored effortlessly on offense and held firm on defense and with three minutes left in the quarter the score was 19-8 after a one-handed alley-oop slam from big man Devin Booker. Zirbes pounded home another dunk and the score started to get nearly out of hand at 25-12 for the home team and still several minutes left in the quarter. Thankfully for the visitors they hit two straight threes to keep things close enough but that was answered immediately by two buckets for Lucic and a three-pointer for Redding at the 5-second mark. Score heading the second quarter was 32-19.
2nd quarter:
The German Cup winners of 2018 started the second quarter of Game 5 strongly and dominated the boards to extend their lead to 15. The Munich squad found a way to get around the stingy defense of Berlin and thanks to the ever calm Stefan Jovic, they maintained control of the game and it seemed like nearly every possession led to a highlight play for Bayern. Cunningham scored on a dunk as did Djedovic and they held the lead at around 15 points all the way until there were three minutes left in the half. That was when an Alex King three-ball put them up by 20 points and as the seconds ticked off, the score was 58-39 for the home team.
3rd quarter:
Berlin came out determined to make a game of it and quickly shortened the gap to 11 points. After Munich timeout, Stefan Jovic drilled a three and a few buckets from Zirbes and King helped keep the game out of reach for Berlin. After a somewhat slow stretch for Bayern in the start of the second half, they found their rhythm again with a few minutes left to play in the third quarter and streaked back to a 19-point lead with 3 minutes to play. The quarter ended fittingly for Munich on a buzzer beater by Nihad Djedovic and the score was a shocking 86-61 heading into the final quarter of the season.
4th quarter:
Needless to say, the Bayern fans were feeling it at this point and the noise was deafening in the Souther Munich arena. After so many times seeing Berlin win the championship they could start to feel that this time it was coming home to Munich and that this tough season of ups and downs was going to end on the highest possible note. Djedovic continued his hot play and though Berlin continued to fight, everyone in the building knew that this game was going to end in favor of Bayern. Munich kept a 20-point lead throughout nearly the entire quarter and besides and alley-oop slam for Lucic and a big-time dunk by Redding off a steal, there rest can be left unsaid. In the end, the Bayern Basketball players were the best team on the night and that resulted in the trophy proving that they were the best team in Germany for the 2018 season. The parties may now commence and if you are in Munich definitely don't miss out on the celebration and presentation of the trophy to the fans on Tuesday, June 19th at 18:00 CEST at Paulaner am Nockherberg, Hochstraße 77, 81541 München.
FC Bayern München Basketball has made us all proud and now we can only sit back, enjoy the feeling and eagerly await the next season of our beloved boys in red.