What a party, what an atmosphere! On the return of fans to the Audi Dome, the Bayern basketball team won the big EuroLeague derby against Alba Berlin 62-56 and thus evened their record to 11-11. In front of a good 1,400 spectators, Andrea Trinchieri's team turned around a twelve-point deficit with a sheer show of will in a hectic game. The decisive four-point play was scored by top scorer Vladimir Lucic (19) with 41 seconds remaining.

On Sunday (18:00), the Munich team will look to defend its BBL lead against Bayreuth, while EuroLeague action continues in Barcelona (Tuesday) and against Maccabi (Thursday).

After a cautious start, the prestige duel picked up speed and the FCBB took the lead with numerous steals, especially from Weiler-Babb (26-21/16th). However, scoring was difficult for both teams against an aggressive defense, only 50 points were seen by the so eager fans until the break.

The guests came out of the break much more alert and took a big lead (41-29/26th), and the FCBB went a good ten minutes without a basket. But then Bayern fought their way back with an 18-3 run (34th) - 47-44! Alba fought back, but the fans and Lucic pushed the Munich team to a hue victory.

Points per quarter Bayern - Berlin: 16-16, 10-8, 15-20, 21-12

Stats: Two-point shooting: 49% (FCBB) // 40% (Alba); Three-point shooting: 29% // 32%; Free-throw shooting: 67% // 59%; Rebounds: 30 // 33; Assists: 14 // 9; Rebounds: 16 // 18

Quotes:      

FCBB head coach, Andrea Trinchieri: "I will be very honest: What an ugly game! Both teams fought so hard, but it was like we were playing in the mud - hard, 62-56 . . . .. So an ugly game, but it tastes so sweet and is so important. It was exactly the identical game as against Baskonia (which was lost), but at least we learned to win ugly games in a season where we have five games in ten days, where it will be six in ten days and seven in 14 and eight in 17 days - wow! Like I said, we played hard and found a way after a terrible third quarter to go into the last five minutes with clear ideas of what to do on offense and defense. In the back we were sloppy the whole game because we didn't have enough mental energy to reproduce the stuff from Lyon, Baskonia and Heidelberg. (...) Nick played very well for two quarters, poorly in the third and excellent again in the fourth. And Sisko had a great end, with good plays and right decisions. Both were strong, but even the players who didn't look good helped us. Like Thomas, who gave us rhythm at the end of the third quarter after playing poorly for quite some time, hitting shots and having good work on defense. You only win games like that as a team, not with one player, although of course our franchise player Lucca had some big plays."                               

Leon Radosevic: "Now we have a series, with five games won. And it continues against Barcelona, then Maccabi. Hopefully we will win one game of them. In any case, it was very important today to win this game, so we have an 11 to 11 record and maybe in the end we will reach the playoffs again. Hopefully, it's all uphill now. Djedovic is slowly coming back now and I hope Paul will come back as well. Then when we're all back together, I think everything will go up even more."

Vladimir Lucic: "Our energy was much better in the fourth quarter than the three sections before that. We played much better together as a team toward the end. We've had a tough week, with two important away wins. So today it was very important to confirm that trend. It's always a special game for us against Alba, the German derby. That's why I'm very happy that we won."

Game recap:

FCBB went into this German derby at EuroLeague level with Corey Walden, Ognjen Jaramaz, Vladimir Lucic, Augustine Rubit and Leon Radosevic. With their places in the starting five, Lucic and Radosevic each celebrated an anniversary - they played their 300th and 200th game for FC Bayern Basketball. The first ball did not find its way through the net until the second minute (2-0 by Ben Lammers), but after that it became very competitive (a total of nine fouls and eleven turnovers).
This intensity carried over into the second quarter, where Nick Weiler-Babb set a new career high with his sixth steal as early as the 13th minute. The scoreboard also clearly showed the good defensive performances for both sides. The Bavarians only managed to pull away slightly before the break with a score of 26-24.

Nick Weiler-Babb with fast hands

The second half started with an 11-1 run by the visitors from Berlin before Coach Trinchieri took a timeout (23rd). But even after that, the Munich team had a hard time getting back into the flow of the game. By hitting from outside the three-point line, they were able to cut the deficit to three points by the end of the third quarter (44-41).

That this sport is a game of runs was again evident at the start of the final quarter where, with a quarter-long 16-3 run of the FCBB, the final quarter was rung in. A remarkable alley-oop play from Sisko to Lucic then rang in the decisive phase of the game. The forward ensured the preliminary decision with a four-point play, with 41 seconds remaining. The subsequent full-court press of the Berliners was cleverly played out, so that Augustine Rubit decided the game with a hit free throw.