Bayern lets the game slip through their fingers vs Red Star

The Bayern Basketball team returns home from the difficult Double Week in the EuroLeague with two away games in 48 hours without a win: The team of coach Andrea Trinchieri lost in a gripping duel at Serbian rival, Red Star 81-78 on Friday night despite a well-played game. Once again, in front of almost 7,000 hot-blooded fans, the Munich team missed Hilliard, Radosevic and Zipser as well as the overview of their playmaker Sisko, who was absent at short notice in Piraeus. The FCBB record is now 7:9, the last game of the first round will be next Thursday against the Spanish representative Baskonia Vítoria-Gasteiz in the spectator-empty Audi Dome.

Bayern was met with infernal noise right from the start, as is good custom in the "Pionir". With an 8-0 run to take a 19-14 lead (9th), they seemingly freed themselves from the noise helped by numerous offensive rebounds. They led 2922 (12th) shortly after, but Belgrade suddenly hit their threes in the second quarter (87% before the break, 10 of 18 in the end). The Munich team, on the other hand, had to work hard for every shot in the electrifying atmosphere of the Nikolic Hall and against an appropriately physically defending host. They scored only three points in the first six minutes of the final quarter (11-16) and could not pull off the win in the final minutes.

After returning home on Saturday afternoon, the clock is already ticking again for the FCBB: At 18:00 (MagentaSport), the third-place team in the standings, Ludwigsburg, will host the BBL top team in Munich's Audi Dome on Sunday.

Points per quarter Bayern - Belgrade: 21-20, 24-26, 22-19, 11-16

Stats: Two-point shooting: 49 % (FCBB) // 53 % (Belgrad); Three-point shooting: 38 % // 56 %; Free-throw shooting: 82 % // 75 %; Rebounds:  31 // 21; Assists:  12 // 19; Turnovers:  11 // 11

Quotes:         

Andrea Trinchieri: "A great game, both teams played super hard. Congratulations to Red Star, they made the decisive run in the last five minutes. We fought, on some defensive plays we were a bit late. But I think we showed a completely different face, we just played 48 hours ago, twice away against two tough opponents. We had one day less break than them and after 35 minutes we made some mistakes in defense that cost us the game. We came back after Wednesday; not enough to win the game, but we fought back."

Corey Walden: "This was a competitive game until the end when we just missed some open shots. Still, we showed character and toughness, which is a good aspect today. Now we have to find a way to win again, and I know we will. We want to finish the first half strong now next week and then we'll be okay."     

Game recap:

K.C. Rivers was in the starting five for the first time in his second game with Bayern. The Munich team had to come to terms with the expected physicality of the Serbians at the beginning, who played mostly with a large unit. Until 9-9 niether team had an advantage before the first trends emerged: The FCBB frequently got second attempts, they caught eleven offensive rebounds in the first half and Nick Weiler-Babb alone had five. The Serbs, on the other hand, used the open shots from distance, contrary to their habits: seven of eight attempts went through the ring, an unreal quota, which gave Red Star the narrow halftime lead.

67-65 lead before the last ten minutes

The second half started unpleasantly from the FCBB's point of view, because after three minutes the game management had already attributed five fouls to Munich's account - from then on, Red Star went often to the line and for the first time pulled away a bit more clearly with the score of 56-51 (25th). The high-scoring game of the first 20 minutes was now replaced by an intense defensive duel. And how quiet it can get in the Nikolic Hall was to be marveled at after Vladimir Lucic's ice-cold three-pointer for Munich's next lead (58-56/27th). The former captain of the city rival led his team brilliantly in these minutes, ten points from him and a final alley-oop pass from Weiler-Babb to Othello Hunter were striking steps to take a 67-65 lead before the final quarter.

But Red Star continued to work and simply came to points easier on offense. A good four minutes before the end, it was suddenly 78-70 with Belgrade taking their biggest lead in such a hard-fought duel. The guests did not let themselves down, but the possible victory was given away by only eleven points and some iffy play in the last quarter. 

SCHEDULE

(c) Stickel, Stevanovic