Professional debuts and George's best in Oldenburg

After their entry into the EuroLeague playoffs, the Bayern Basketball team clearly lost the BBL game in Oldenburg, which started only 19 hours after a playoff-clinching matchup: Despite a committed performance in front of 5,000 fans, the team arrived without a single international player and lost 106-75.

For Bayern, 17-year-old guard Aleksa Vucetic celebrated his professional debut, while Luis Wulff, 18, and Mohamed Sillah, 20, also received their first minutes of action from the second team. The top FCBB scorer was youngster Jason George with a career-best 20 points, ahead of Joshua Obiesie (18).

It was the seventh loss of the season for Munich. The team will travel to Fenerbahce Istanbul (Monday, 18:45) for a EuroLeague make-up game on Sunday. The EuroLeague regular season will be completed on Wednesday at Efes (18:30) and on Friday at Real Madrid (20.45).

Points per quarter Bayern - Oldenburg: 12-24, 18-25, 27-32, 18-25

Stats: Two-point shooting: 35% (FCBB) // 64% (Oldenburg); Three-point shooting: 33% // 54%; Free-throw shooting: 84% // 55%; Rebounds: 41 // 32; Assists:  17 // 26; Turnovers:  19 // 12

Quotes:                 

Slaven Rimac, Coach FC Bayern Basketball: "Our squad was the best we could muster under the circumstances and the tasks ahead. We are not particularly dissatisfied now after this game. Maybe we could have offered a little more resistance in the first half by committing a few more fouls and containing their top scorers to make it a little harder for them not to find their rhythm. Still, we showed character and moved the ball well. It was an opportunity for some players to play a lot of minutes for once. Of course, you can't really be satisfied with the amount of the defeat, but it's due to the situation given a tight game schedule."

Ingo Freyer, head coach Oldenburg: "We have our basic principles that we have to bring to the court. We wanted to bring intensity to the court, press a lot and be aggressive. Regardless of what Bayern's team looks like. We succeeded in that."

Nihad Djedovic: "Honestly, we are not disappointed. We knew it would be difficult with the team here. Fortunately, the young players got some minutes and played well. Now we're moving on. Yesterday we made it back-to-back EuroLeague playoffs, which means a lot for this club. After that, we slept, traveled, ate a little bit and then went straight to the game. Even though it's always an honor for me to play for Bayern, physically it was tough today. Thank God I'm feeling better and better at the moment. Although it's hard to train with this schedule, I'm getting more and more in shape with the games."

Game recap:

Joshua Obiesie, Andreas Obst, Nihad Djedovic, Jason George and Gavin Schilling were in the starting five and had to put up with two threes in the first 30 seconds. It didn't take long for Obst and Obiesie to find the right answer with moves to the basket. But the rested Oldenburg team started furiously and, led by their newly signed center Reggie Lynch, initiated a 13-0 run (19-6/7th minute). With 17-year-old playmaker Aleksa Vucetic on the court, the Munich team managed to break the offensive logjam somewhat. However, this did not change anything in a dominant first quarter for the Thunderbirds (12:24).

The second ten minutes also initially brought little hope for the fans in red. Veteran Rickey Paulding and top scorer Max Heidegger showed their complete repertoire and let it rain especially from Downtown - time-out Slaven Rimac (39-20/15th). George now took responsibility in the absence of the regulars and scored eleven of Munich's 30 points before halftime. Nevertheless, there was little to counter the firepower of the hosts (49-30).   

Bayern fights back but Oldenburg continues to score

The second half was less than two minutes old when Slaven Rimac was forced to call another timeout after eight quick points from Heidegger. After this, Obst took the reins on offense and hit two three-pointers in a row. As Obiesie analyzed at halftime, however, the defense remained the bigger issue. The Lower Saxons scored 32 points too easily in the third quarter, making it difficult to catch up (81-57).

In the final quarter, the experienced Paulding knew what his EWE Baskets needed. With his points, he nipped any comeback in the bud (94-64/35th). On the Munich side, young Mohamed Sillah and Luis Wulff made their BBL debuts. However, they were unable to do more than gain valuable experience in a game that had long since been decided (106-75).

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