Bayern manage second EuroLeague home win within 48 hours

The Bayern basketball team was able to use its home advantage at the end of the Double Week and is now back in business in the EuroLeague with five wins: In front of 2,500 spectators in the Audi Dome, Andrea Trinchieri's team beat the Greek record champion Panathinaikos Athens just 48 hours after the victory over Fenerbahce Istanbul thanks to a terrific, high-character performance 81-78. The expectedly difficult clash was decided in the end by the incredible Vladimir Lucic and Augustine Rubit.

For Munich (5-6), Hilliard (20), Thomas (15), Rubit (12) and Walden (8) were top scorers. For them, it continues Sunday (15:00./MagentaSport) in Goettingen with the BBL away game.

As against Fener (71-63), the hosts started focused with a 19-14 lead, but Athens resisted its poor start to the season with strong shooting and penetrating the zone defense to take a lead (40-32/18); Lucic played with three fouls for a long portion of the game. At 49-39 (22) the deficit was big, but Obst initiated the comeback with two three-pointers to 61-60 (31). The guests promptly countered with a 10-0 run to take a 70-61 lead but 29 seconds before the siren Lucic paved the way for the culmination of the final spurt with a three-pointer to re-take the lead at 77-76 - and Rubit caught THE rebound and remained ice-cold at the line. 

Points per quarter Bayern - Panathinakos 22-22, 22-15, 22-16, 22-18

Stats: Two-point shooting: 61 % (FCBB) // 61 % (Athen); Three-point shooting: 35 % // 39 %; Free-throw shooting: 92 % // 71 %; Rebounds:  26 // 27; Assists:  16 // 16; Turnovers:  8 // 8

Quotes:      

Andrea Trinchieri: "This was an extremely complicated game. We didn't shine, but honestly, who cares? When you play back-to-back, it's like Forrest Gump's chocolate box: you don't know what kind of game you're going to get. We had a very bad first half, offensively and defensively; were disorganized, not focused, missed assignments. Just bad. Sometimes, if you play badly but believe in yourself, fight and stay resilient, you can win. Panathinaikos played better for a long time. They had more energy and we had no rhythm, But in the second half we played better, better execution on offense, better on defense. But then the game took a path that was hard for us when they got confidence and Papapetrou hit hard shots, and they are just a good team. We didn't underestimate them either, we just didn't get the game in our direction to control it. They are on a bad streak and had great desire to fight back. But we managed to make some offensive and defensive plays at the end and now we are talking about an extremely important win. A loss would have pushed us back into the mud; that's where we still are, but given our schedule with a lot of away games and tough opponents at home, at least we can breathe again. (...) That fake zone defense, which then became a man-man, completely threw us off our rhythm. I should have done a better job in the first half; I needed too long to adjust. (...) I didn't take Lucic out (after two quick fouls) because he I trusted his experience. (...) After the break he was able to play 19 minutes and 57 seconds. He was good at the end."  

 Vladimir Lucic: "We have a tough schedule with these tough games on Sunday against Chemnitz and two days ago against Fenerbahce. We didn't expect a zone defense for almost 40 minutes. A lot of us had no rhythm. We just suffered offensively. The good thing is that we somehow won. Panathinaikos is a good team, even though you've only won two games so far. They have many great and talented players, which is why the victory was so important for us. (...) I was one of those who had no rhythm today. I didn't have the ball in my hands for 25 minutes and I tried to find myself for a long time. But it was hard against the zone defense. So I am happy that I hit the last shots. (...) We had the opportunity to win in the first games and just didn't make it in the end. That was not good for the self-confidence. But the better it is for the team chemistry to win games like today or against Fenerbahce. That's very important."

Darrun Hilliard: "It's never easy to play two games like that. The EuroLeague is a tough league. Pana is a great team with good players and a great coach, even if their statistics don't show it yet. We fought today and it was a hard-earned win. Lucic was very important for us at the end with his shots. We are growing more and more together and building consistency, character, camaraderie and chemistry - we proved all of that today. It was a great team effort with everyone who came in hitting important throws."

Deshaun Thomas: "We never gave up, we played like a team, fought and gave everything. We had ups and downs and fought hard as a team to get the win. That's what makes us. We know we have to help each other on the field. Because if we do that and we all stand together, we're strong."

Game recap:

As in the home win against Fenerbahce (71-63), Corey Walden, Darrun Hilliard, Vladimir Lucic, Deshaun Thomas and Augustine Rubit were the starting five. Hilliard was immediately noticeable in the fact that he still had something to make up for, as he showed his complete repertoire from threes to moves to the basket (11-8 from FCBB's point of view/5th minute). For the time being, Panathinaikos concentrated on using Ioannis Papapetrou under the basket, which Andrea Trinchieri thought succeeded a little too often - time-out. But nobody was as hot on the court as Hilliard, who stood out with twelve points in an overall even quarter (22-22).

Dimitris Priftis' team got off to the better start in the second quarter. Leonidas Kaselikas and Okaro White added to the unusually high three-point quota. In addition, Athens presented the Munich team with a tough task with their zone defense. Rubit and Hilliard knew how to solve them in one-on-one situations howver, and kept it close (36-32/16). Another problem was the rebounding statistic, which went in favor of the Greeks 16-9. The deficit at halftime just made sense (44-37).

Rebound weakness at the beginning, free throw strength at the end

It took less than two minutes before Trinchieri had to insistently point out the lack of intensity to his players. But as before, the guests found their way into the zone and thus answered with points of their own to the beautiful shots of Weiler-Babb and Rubit (57-47/25). But the Audi Dome now sensed that Bayern's fighting spirit was awakening. Hunter blocked Athens' top scorer Papapetrou and found Andi Obst on a fastbreak - his three-pointer was the longed-for reward for a laborious third-quarter fightback (60-59).  

The incredible Lucic delivers when needed

In the fourth quarter, Daryl Macon began to emphasize his role as the Greeks' lynchpin. He sank two extremely tightly defended shots. On the other side the ball wasn't bouncing Bayern's way which allowed the guests to pull away again (70-63/34). Vladimir Lucic redeemed himself and the fans with his first points of the game.

The home team fought for every ball with a lot of effort and came back to within two points (76-74) one minute before the end. And as if he had no nerves, Vladimir Lucic drilled a three-pointer against Daryl Macon (77-76/ 28 seconds left). Macon tried to imitate the Serbian - and failed. Rubit got the following rebound, was fouled and sank both free throws. With finesse, Bayern now traded points at the line and forced a tough last three-pointer by Nemanja Nedovic, which missed its target by a wide margin (81-78).

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Fotos: FCBB, Eirich, Stickel, sampics