Braunschweig will be the opponents of the Bayern basketball team in the Quarterfinals of the 2019 German League playoffs. While the defending champion lost it's last regular season game in front of 6,000 spectators in the sold-out Telekom Dome against Bonn by a final of 102-98, Braunschweig used their home game against Bayreuth to jump into eighth place. Bayern for whom it ,was only the third defeat, rested Danilo Barthel and lost the rebounding duel (38-29) in what was essentially a meaningless game.
The best-of-five-series against Braunschweig starts next Saturday evening (18.5., 20:30) in the Audi Dome, the second home game will be eight days later, on Sunday, May 26th at 18:00.
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FCBB stats: Braydon Hobbs (8), Alex King (8), Petteri Koponen (8), Leon Radosevic (11), Vladimir Lucic (10), Maodo Lo (7), Nihad Djedovic (14/7 rebounds), Stefan Jovic (1/12 assists), Derrick Williams (13), Marvin Ogunsipe, Devin Booker (18).
FCBB head coach, Dejan Radonjic: "We congratulate Bonn first, they played well, especially in the first half. Our defense was bad and the 53 points from them in the first half tell everything. They hit everything from distance for quite a stretch. In the third quarter we made it better at some point, but sometimes that's not enough and then it's too late. Williams and Lucic will be checked tomorrow, but it looks like they're alright."
1st half:
At the break the Bavarians had already 53 points - an indication that they didn't throw out there to win the game and that the hosts could play free in view of their own play-off qualification. And, of course, the Bonners were determined to jump from eighth place to seventh. Bayern fell behind 42.-36 and were pushed around a bit by a very physical team in Bonn playing in front of their home fans. Coach Radonjic also rotated a lot, as his starting five of Jovic, Hobbs, Lucic, Williams and Booker struggled to start but the mix and match seemed to work as they took a 30-25 lead in the second quarter.
At the break, however, Bonn was close again and the quarterfinal opponent appeared to be Würzburg despite a disastrous 59-32 half-time score in the Franconian Derby in Bamberg.
2nd half time:
The second half didn't start well for Bayern as Bonn started with a 12-0 run to take a 65-51 lead after a few minutes of play. The defence against Bonn, who are known to be fixated on taking threes, was all too negligent and gave up a bunch of deep shots to the joy of the home team. Only towards the end of the third quarter did the Bavarians return to the game and after Nihad Djedovic's and Koponen's threes they were back within reach at 78-73.
In the final quarter Bayern was down only two but the the visitors were not quite able to get over the hump and take the lead. But finall Lucic and Djedovic hit some big-time shots to again take the lead for the defending champs. There were just under two minutes left to play, at the end of which the hard-pressed Lucic missed and on the other side Jackson and Polas Bartolo didn't and the team from Bonn walked away with a big victory for them and an insugnificant loss for Bayern.
Photos: Stickel