There was real music in this win: The Bayern Basketball team won its EuroLeague home game against Virtus Bologna 91-84 thanks to a balanced team performance. This is the ninth win of the season and was a great opening for the celebrated Music Meets Basketball headliner Clueso.
Only the loss of Elias Harris took away from a perfect night in front of 6,500 fans in the sold-out Audi Dome. Augustine Rubit (18 points), Cash Winston (15) and Nick Weiler-Babb (10) were top scorers. The FCBB also won the direct comparison (first game: 66-63 for Virtus).
Sunday vs Goettingen
For Bayern the grind continues with four tough games in eight days: Sunday (15:00) comes the BBL top game in the Audi Dome against fourth-place Goettingen; Tuesday (in Valencia) and Thursday (at FC Barcelona) makes for a Double-Week in the EuroLeague and Sunday (Feb. 5, 20:30) is the next top duel in their own hall against second-place Bonn.
Harris injures his foot
The FCBB, still without Lucic and Obst, was infected by the party atmosphere and rushed ahead 17-7 after six minutes and to 31-21 (13th). Bologna remained in the game though and had some highlight dunks along the way.
The injury of Elias Harris, who landed on the floor after a collision was an unfortunate bad break. The power forward, who had already scored seven points at the time, was taken to hospital for examination.
FCBB wins the rebounding duel
After the halftime break, a tough physical battle developed. The FCBB grabbed more rebounds (37-28), but they struggled from three for a long period. Seeley scored from the floor (57-49/28th) and, of course, Hunter scored from distance - 66-55 before the final quarter.
In the final quarter they rained in a few more threes and increased the lead to 76-62 (34th). The FCBB didn't look back from here.
FC Bayern Basketball - Virtus Bologna 91-84
FCBB:
Augustine Rubit (18 Points), Cassius Winston (15), Nick Weiler-Babb (10/7 Reb), Niels Giffey (9), D. J. Seeley (7), Elias Harris (7), Isaac Bonga (6), Ognjen Jaramaz (6), Corey Walden (5), Othello Hunter (5), Freddie Gillespie (3), Niklas Wimberg
Top scorer Bologna:
Isaac Cordinier & Milos Teodosic (14 Points)
Referee
Sasa Pukl, Emilio Perez, Hugues Tepenier
Attendance
6,500
Score per quarter: 22-18, 21-20, 23-17, 25-29
Stats: Two-point shooting: 61% (FCBB) // 62% (Virtus); Three-point shooting: 24% // 30%; Free-throw shooting: 73% // 86%; Rebounds: 37 // 28; Assists: 9 // 16; Turnovers: 13 // 13
Quotes:
FCBB head coach, Andrea Trinchieri: "Our idea was to play a solid game to survive the peaks of Virtus. Because there are moments when Teodosic or Shengelia can put down three, four minutes on their own. (...) We led the whole game, had a good contribution from all players. We won the points comparison with them and I am very happy with the performance of my players. But I can't be happy because I lost one player. Elias played great, so now it's a bitter feeling. I just hope that Elias can be back as soon as possible and I wish him a fast recovery. He injured his foot, not his knee. I would say a bad luck injury and this year we've already had with Lucic and Obst something that's never happened to a basketball player before.
(...) I'm glad how we won the game - and the submarine goes back to the depths of the sea. (...) The important moment was when they got to within one point and we were able to stay in the game mentally and find a player who can make plays. That was Seeley who helped us and then we defended as a unit. Freddie had a great game on defense, protecting our ring, the block against Ojeleye was incredible. The block is not in the stats, but you can see it in the highlights. (...) Nick is our best defender and we are trying to implement his offensive game even more."
Augustine Rubit: "I like how we are improving as a team at the moment. We are also scoring now and getting better with each week. That's an important step looking forward to the rest of the season. We put the pieces together today that we've been working on every day."
Cassius Winston: "I went into the game aggressively today, my team trusts me to go out there, make the plays and hit shots. So I go out on the court and play with a lot of confidence. How we finished the third quarter was important because we struggled in those ten minutes. The finish in that quarter was crucial for us."
Virtus coach, Sergio Scariolo: "Congratulations to Bayern, they deserved the win. They led early. We fought and tried, and our fans can be happy with the attitude. (...) Our offense was okay, but in our defense we had too many mistakes and of course the rebounds made the difference. (...) Bayern made a great move to bring in D.J. Seeley. He is an excellent, experienced player who was very important in special moments. Winston and Rubit dominated the game."
