Bayern beaten 75-65

FC Bayern had another disappointing evening on the international stage in the EuroLeague on Tuesday. The German champion and leader in the BBL table lost 75-65 to French champion Asvel Villeurbanne after an error-strewn second half and missed out on an eighth win of the season in their 23rd game. Bayern, who also lost Nihad Djedovic to injury (back) during the warm-up, started the match with rebound problems and gave up several turnovers as the game went on (22 total, eight in the third quarter). Bayern was subjected to a 21-8 run from the hosts after the game reached 51-51 in the 30th minute, with the team being unable to fight back against the host’s physical defense.

Vice-captain Vladimir Lucic scored 14 points on his comeback after five games out injured. Frenchman Mathias Lessort also impressed in his home country with the same number of points and five rebounds.

Bayern has two home games on the coming weekend: another EuroLeague fixture on Friday 7th February at 20:30 CET against Valencia and a BBL game on Sunday 9th February at 15:00 CET against the Giessen 46ers.

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Points in each quarter from FCBB’s perspective: 18-16, 17-18, 16-20, 14-21.

Stats & facts – Two-point percentage: 50% (FCBB) // 55.3% (Villeurbanne); Three-point percentage: 35.7% // 31.6%; Free-throw percentage: 87.5% // 65.2%; Rebounds: 26 // 25; Assists: 16 // 17; Turnovers: 22 // 14. – Missing: Nihad Djedovic (back), Diego Flaccadori (cd) and Leon Radosevic (back).

Reaction from the game:

Oliver Kostic, FCBB head coach: “This loss is easy to explain – we became soft, we completely lost our physical game at the end of the third quarter and in the fourth. We wanted to come back but that wasn’t simple. We had problems in-bounding, Asvel put us under a lot of pressure. Mentally, we also had problems and you can’t compensate for that at this level. Without Nihad Djedovic we then had another player missing; he had some pains in the warm-up, so soon before the game that we couldn’t replace him with another player. Especially today, his psychological play was missed today.”

Danilo Barthel: "We didn’t respond to the physical style of Asvel. We hid ourselves in the third quarter, we lost the ball so often that they were able to score points regularly. In the final 10 minutes, we completely lost our way. We can’t win away games like that."

First quarter

FCBB started the away game against the French team, who is strong at home, with Maodo Lo, Petteri Koponen, Paul Zipser, Danilo Barthel and Greg Monroe. Like in Milan last week, Bayern got into the game well and kept the game close, never falling more than four points behind (7-3 in the 4th minute). Vladimir Lucic made a positive impact as the Serb made his comeback in the 7th minute. Zan Mark Sisko took the guests into the lead for the first time (16-14), before the returnee took the game to 18-16 for Bayern with his first shot.

Second quarter

Bayern served up the offensive highlight of the evening with their first points of the second period – an alley-oop pass from TJ Bray to Mathias Lessort for the slam dunk (20-18, 11'). FCBB remained clinical in attack and built up a seven-point lead with a 9-2 run through Lucic and Josh Huestis (29-22, 15'). The returnee already shot 100 per cent from the field, with eight points to his name. Bayern allowed the ProA leaders to attack again in the remaining minutes before the break and the teams went into the changing rooms with the scoreline 35-34.

Third quarter

After the break, Monroe and Koponen scored (40-37, 22’), before Villeurbanne went on a three-minute 9-0 run and pulled clear by six points. Bayern responded with important points from Barthel and Sisko (45-48, 28’). Lucic levelled the match after the half-hour mark, but Villeurbanne turned the momentum in their favour and went into the final quarter with a three-point lead.

Fourth quarter

Lucic opened the scoring in the fourth quarter for Bayern, who were now struggling significantly with simple in-bound passes – the French team showed no mercy and and took their lead into the double figures (53-66, 33’). Lessort scored Bayern’s next six points. Villeurbanne were not fazed, however, and recorded their eighth win in a row. Frenchman Lessort scored 10 of his 14 points in the final quarter.

Photo credit: Asvel Villeurbanne, Halimi/Euroleague