The basketball players of FC Bayern Munich were able to celebrate their tenth BBL win in a row with a dominant win 99-76 in front of 3,520 spectators in the sold-out sports hall in Giessen. With a points record of 60-4 the Munich club remains on course for the club record. Derrick Williams was the top scorer for the German championship with 18 points in a game which all eleven players contributed. The American scored twelve points against the Giessen 46ers in the third quarter alone and a total of five players from the standings leader scored in double-digits. Vladimir Lucic and Leon Radosevic did not play.
Next Friday evening (May 10th) the final regular season game in the Audi Dome is on the agenda. The Ulmers who qualified for the playoffs this weekend will come in for a big test before the playoffs (20:30).
Points per quarter Bayern - Giessen: 24-19, 29-25, 27-10, 19-22.
FCBB stats: Derrick Williams (18 points | 6 rebounds), Nihad Djedovic (14 | 5 assists), Danilo Barthel (14 | 4 rebounds), Devin Booker (12), Alex King (10), Petteri Koponen (9), Nemanja Dangubic (6), Maodo Lo (6), Stefan Jovic (4), Braydon Hobbs (3 | 3 steals), Marvin Ogunsipe (3).
Quotes:
FCBB head coach, Dejan Radonjic: "We had a good attitude already in the first half, although we didn't succeed in everything and we had some mistakes. After the break our game was fantastic, especially in the third quarter. We had a few personnel problems before the game, but we had a good performance overall. We want to do the same on Friday against Ulm, whereby we want to pay particular attention to HOW we play".
Danilo Barthel: "In the first half we had a hard time, made far too many mistakes and gave them easy points through turnovers and offensive rebounds. We made it clear to ourselves that we had to play better in the second half, a bit more aggressively - and we did that right away. Then it was relatively easy. We're now trying to improve our rebounding before the playoffs, to get a little more aggressive in general and to put the pedal to the metal in practice so we're in top shape for the playoffs."
1st quarter
FCBB coach Dejan Radonjic started with Stefan Jovic, Nihad Djedovic, Nemanja Dangubic, Danilo Barthel and Devin Booker. Dangubic started things off with a bang by nailing a three-pointer to take an early lead. After a small lead for Giessen the Bavarians increased the intensity and answered with points by Booker, Barthel and Jovic in a 9-0 run for a 16-8 lead. Giessen tied things up again but the Bavarians again took the lead thanks to some makes from beyond the arc and the visitors held a 24-19 lead after the first quarter.
2nd quarter
The hosts in person of the former FCBB centre John Bryant opened the second quarter with a bucket before Derrick Williams and Marvin Ogunsipe scored the first points for the Bavarians after the first quarter break. The game continued to be fairly even into the middle of the second quarter until Bayern slowly started to pull away with their first double-digit lead of the game. In the final minute Alex King put himself on the scoreboard for the first time, so that every available player scored points before the break.
3rd quarter
After the break the Derrick Williams show began: The American Forward opened the quarter with a dunk and established a new double-digit lead for his team at 55-44. In the middle of the quarter Williams had a lot of fun scoring and took the team on a 10-0 run for the Munich team that led to a 29-point lead. Three free throws by Devin Booker finished the strong quarter for Munich, who gave up only ten points to Giessen in the ten minutes.
4th quarter
In the final section, the Bavarians pulled back a few gears, but never let the hosts get closer than 22 points. Alex King, who played quite a few minutes, was Bayern's best shooter with eight points in the last quarter. Peteri Kopponen finished things off witha three and a 99-76- final score in favour of the defending champions.
The next games of the Bavarians:
Fri, 10.5., 20:30: FCBB - Ulm (BBL)
Sun, 5.12, 18:00.: Bonn - FCBB (BBL)
Playoffs 2019 begin Saturday, May 18th
Photo credit: Stickel