FC Bayern Basketball won on the EuroLeague's 13th gameday against Armani Olimpia Milan for their third straight victory. In another thriller, the FCBB defeated the Italian champion 80-78 in front of 7,062 spectators. Led by another outstanding Derrick Williams performance, the Bavarians turned around a four-point deficit in the last 60 seconds and are now in sixth place with a positive record (7-6 victories). The top scorer for Bayern was yet again Derrick Williams with 21 points.
Already on Friday, December 21st, the next EuroLeague spectacle will take place in the Audi Dome: At 20:00 CET as title defender Real Madrid will visit Munich. Again only two days later, on Sunday, December 23rd the Audi Dome will meet again with Alba Berling starting at 18:00 for the German Cup Quarterfinal.
Points per quarter Bayern-Milan: 15-16, 26-24, 17-17, 22-21.
FCBB Stats: Derrick Williams (21 points/6 rebounds), Petteri Koponen (13), Leon Radosevic (10/4), Stefan Jovic (10/4Assists), Nemanja Dangubic (8/4 Reb.), Maodo Lo (5), Nihad Djedovic (5/6 Reb.), Robin Amaize (2), Marvin Ogunsipe (2), Vladimir Lucic, Nelson Weidemann (dnp).
Quotes:
FCBB head coach, Dejan Radonjic: "This is a great victory for us, I must congratulate my team. Before the game we discussed that we had to control the offensive rebounding, because here they are the second best in the EuroLeague in terms of numbers. We did that in the first half and played smart on offense. In the second half it went as you might expect: We were in front, then they came back and in the end it was a tight game. But all the time I had the feeling that we could win here."
Leon Radosevic: "I think that in the end we were the more concentrated team and that's why we deserved the win. It feels great to be able to get such road victories in this tough schedule."
Derrick Williams: "It feels great. We fought incredibly well today and therefore deserved this victory as a team."
1st quarter
Maodo Lo, Nihad Djedovic, Vladimir Lucic, Marvin Ogunsipe and Danilo Barthel tackled the last EuroLeague away match of 2018 as the starting five. Both teams started nervously and suffered some turnovers. The score after almost five minutes proved the chaos as Bayern was losing 5-0. They turned it around quickly and took a 6-5 lead. The game remained hectic as the quarter continued before the Bayern bench brought some structure and with one minute remaining the visitors had a 15-10 lead. Milan's backup point guard Curtis Jerrells sunk the first two threes for the Italians before the break and the home team and Milan held a small lead after one, 16-15.
2nd quarter
Derrick Williams was the defining figure at the beginning of the second quarter. Again and again the American drove aggressively to the basket, which earned him points or at least free throws. The game slowly but surely picked up speed, the offenses smoothed out and points were no longer a scarce commodity on both sides. The FCBB took over the momentum thanks to three offensive rebounds in a row (Williams, Radosevic) and only foul trouble for Vladimir Lucic (3) and Danilo Barthel caused worries for coach Radonjic with four minutes to play in the half. But as it is in basketball, it only took two minutes before a 10-2 run for Milan forced the Bayern coach to take a time-out as his team fell behind, 37-35. The Bavarians, came back a bit more confident after the time-out and a three by Maodo Lo put them on top at the buzzer, 41-40.
3rd quarter
The German champion had problems with the Milan scoring duo Mike James and Nemanja Nedovic after the restart and it resulted in the biggest deficit of the game so far at 52-46. This situation seemed to wake the FCBB up again as Derrick Williams and Leon Radosevic combined for a 7-0 run and renewed Munich lead at 53-52 with three minutes left in the half. In this amazingly tight game the third quarter fittingly ended with a tight lead for Bayern, 57-56.
4th quarter
Petteri Koponen hit a big three to being the quarter and keep his shooting % pristine. Robin Amaize took advantage of a turnover with a dunk ono the other end and the six-point lead led to a time-out for Milan. The story remained the same: a Milan time-out was followed by a Milan run and a Bavarian time-out. In this rhythm the game now turned into crunchtime, which increased the intensity under the basket again. Just at the moment when Derrick Williams and Petteri Koponen apparently put the FCBB in a great position, a controversial technical foul against Vladimir Lucic helped Milan tie things up at 72-72 with two minutes to play in the game. One minute before the end the FCBB was four points behind, but did not give in and turned the game in their favor thanks to an impressive final sprint at both ends of the court and they hung on for an 80-78 victory on the road.
Upcoming games:
- Fri, 21 December, 20:00.: FCBB - Real Madrid (EuroLeague, 14th matchday)
- Sun, 23 December, 18:00.: FCBB - Alba Berlin (cup quarter finals)
- Wed, 26 December, 18:00.: FCBB - Würzburg (BBL, 12th matchday)
- Fri, 28 December, 20:30: FCBB - Podgorica (EuroLeague, 15th matchday)
- Sun, 30 December, 20:30: Bamberg - FCBB (BBL, 13th matchday)
(Photo-Credit: Stickel)
