Bayern suffers a tough loss at Olympiakos

The Bayern Basketball team lost a difficult away game at Olympiakos Piraeus 84-82. Head coach Andrea Trinchieri's team, which was severely shorthanded, won two quarters and fought its way back in the final quarter after trailing 77-70. With four seconds left, they had one last possession to possibly win, but Paul Zipser's final three-pointer missed the mark and no foul was called. Bayern who now stand at 11-7 wins and the tie-breaker with the playoff candidate (9-8) would remain in the German team's favor in view of the 74-68 score in the first matchup.

The combative and strong Munich team was missing top scorer Vladimir Lucic, Zan Mark Sisko and Robin Amaize as well as captain Nihad Djedovic. Their top scorer was D.J. Seeley, who scored 26 points and hit seven of eight three-pointers.                 

For the FCBB, the encounter was just the start of five games within ten days. Already on Sunday, they will play Chemnitz in the BBL at the Audi Dome (Jan. 8, 15:00) before hosting Zenit St. Petersburg in the EuroLeague on Wednesday (Jan. 13, 20:30).

Quotes:
Andrea Trinchieri: "Congratulations to Olympiakos for the victory. It was a very tough, physical game that was very fun to watch, I think. We put up 23 assists, we hit the same number of threes as they did, we won the rebounds, had twelve offensive alone - and yet we lost with the last shot. Without four players, we played an excellent game. I feel sorry for my players because they played so hard, worked through mistakes and they really never, ever gave up; even when Olympiakos hit big threes. We played as a team and the only thing that didn't go our way was the score on the scoreboard. The rest was right with us, without the four missing players we showed such a performance. But that's how it is now, I'm proud of my players for how they played against a very experienced team. It goes on."

D.J. Seeley: "It was a tough game until the end. I don't know if it wasn't a foul at the end. We got some key offensive rebounds from them at the end. It's tough to lose a game that way. We worked so hard in practice, battled and our rotation was short, missing players. Still, we worked for a chance to win the game."         

Georgios Bartzokas (Coach Olympiakos): "The talent of the players made it close for us today. Spanoulis hit some important shots. We also managed to take the creativity out of Bayern's game in the second half."

Points per quarter Bayern - Olympiakos: 22-19, 24-25, 15-20, 21-20.

Stats: Two-point shooting: 52% (FCBB) // 54% (Olympiakos); Three-point shooting: 40% // 45%; Free-throw shooting: 85% // 94%; Rebounds: 24 // 27; Assists: 23 // 16; Turnovers: 13 //14.

Game Recap:
Trinchieri put Wade Baldwin, Diego Flaccadori, Paul Zipser, James Gist and Leon Radosevic in as the starting five. The hosts directly started to play off the strength from their previous EuroLeague game (16/29 threes against Khimki) and scored a quick eight points. Bayern did a good job on the boards and countered with three early offensive rebounds (7:10 from FCBB's point of view/4th minute). The multiple EuroLeague winner kept the pressure up on defense and took advantage of the resulting turnovers to take a 16-9 lead. But gradually the Munich team took control and went on a 14-3 run to take the lead at the end of the first quarter (22-19).

The Greeks came out of the break with more enthusiasm and, led by EuroLeague legend Vassilis Spanoulis (10 points), created numerous open shots to take a one-point lead (25-24/13th). D.J. Seeley found his hot hand in this phase and sank three threes in a row (35-28/16th). The FCBB moved the ball well now and were able to pull away to 42-33 after a steal by Weiler-Babb. But Olympiakos' top scorer Kostas Sloukas (11 points/5 assists at the break) made it his business to level the gap again just before halftime. However, a strong block by Johnson and a buzzer-beater layup by Flaccadori preserved a slim lead (46-44).

Piraeus found their rhythm in the second half and caused foul trouble on Munich's side (Gist and Seeley with four early fouls).  Baldwin took over the offense with five points and kept his team in the race (53-53/24th). An open exchange then developed between centers Hassan Martin and Jaylen Reynolds (59-59/26th). But since Baldwin and Reynolds were the only ones to produce points for Bayern in the entire third quarter, the Greeks were able to gain a small advantage going into the final quarter, 64-61.

The hosts also got the better start in the final quarter and forced an early timeout from Bayern (69-63/32nd). Olympiakos now showed their qualities from the three-point line and also hit well-defended shots to take a nine-point lead (75-66/35th). While the Greeks seemed to score at will, the Munich team had to work hard for their points. With important points from top scorer Seeley and aggressive defense, Bayern nevertheless managed to tie the game at 77 with three minutes to go. But again Sloukas was on the spot and put Piraeus in the lead (84-82). In the end, the Munich team had 4.2 seconds left to tie or win the game. The ball landed in the hands of Paul Zipser, who was badly interfered with by Vezenkov on a three-pointer. A foul was not called and Bayern left the arena with a loss.

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Photo Credit: Panagiotis Moschandreou