Bayern captures win number 5

A victory is a fine reward during this insane schedule. In the seventh game within 14 days, the Bayern basketball team won the EuroLeague battle with Valencia 97-92. In front of 4,400 fans at the Audi Dome, Andrea Trincheri's team earned its fifth win of the season just 45 hours after the thriller against Madrid. Walden, who scored his 18 points in the final ten and a half minutes led the team in points while Bonga (14), Hunter (13) and Obst (10) led the strong FCBB offense that hit a whopping 16 threes.

Saturday vs Braunschweig 

The every-48-hours rhythm continues on Saturday evening (20:30.), when Braunschweig comes to visit in a BBL matchup. The next game will be on December 23rd in the EuroLeague at Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania.

Tickets vs Braunschweig

The FCBB - still without Lucic and Rubit - struggled on defense with their fatigue but they moved the ball well on offense. But a 41-33 advantage wasn't enough and the guests took a lead in the middle of the third quarter (57-54/26th). Two Giffey threes made it 62-57 and were followed by a three from Walden plus a foul to make it 82-72 (34th).

Score per quarter Bayern - Valencia:  23-26, 20-13, 26-26, 28-27

Stats:  Two-point shooting: 52 % (FCBB) // 50 % (Valencia); Three-point shooting: 44 % // 41 %; Free-throw shooting: 71 % // 90 %; Rebounds: 38 // 33; Assists:  21 // 20; Turnovers: 14 // 15

Quotes:

Andrea Trinchieri, Munich head coach : "It's rare to see that kind of offensive basketball in a back-to-back game. And for us it was back-to-back-to-back-to-back. It was a good game, with good ideas on the court and players with good rhythm. When you play that many times, mistakes have a big part in the game. But when we had 23, 26, 28 points, we grew on offense, we also shot very well after a bad first half. We hit ten threes in the second half, that was the key.

Dubljevic was a problem because he is very experienced and took advantage of that against Freddie. But Freddie found a way to be very effective with eight rebounds and his activity at the hoop. This is a great win after a tough week. (...) Our plan today was to attack aggressively in the first eight seconds. We are still in the process of learning and we are trying to change things. So it brought us flow and rhythm. Right now my goal is to play with a lot of instinct, but rationally. Right now we have a lot of instinct, but not always the rationality. I think this is now the first step of what we want to do. We also had bad shots but the team played with intensity and rhythm, grabbed rebounds on offense and fought. So I'm happy to accept the collateral damage."       

Corey Walden: "We played well and got our offense going. Everybody did their part. Personally, I stayed confident, always believed in myself and took the shots I know I can hit. But we still have a few games to go. We just have to keep doing what we're doing."

Elias Harris: "It was absolutely fun today, it was a nice team effort. We did a good job of dividing up the tasks for the team today and hitting from the outside. We ran and we didn't manage to do that in the last game. As a result, our offense is looking a lot better as well. Corey Walden has the qualities to decide a game. The first half wasn't his, but he didn't quit, came out of the locker room and just kept taking his shots with confidence and hitting them."                    

Isaac Bonga: "It was a tough battle. We put 97 points on the scoreboard and had both ups and downs, but we'll work on that. It's a great win for us, I'm very happy. With this schedule, I can hardly remember my own name. All I know is that in 46 hours we will be playing again."

Valencia head coach, Álex Mumbrú: "We started the game well, but defended badly for 40 minutes. Bayern hit nine of 14 threes in the second half. These were well played, but it was also due to our poor defense. When the opposing team hits so well from the three-point line, it's hard to win. We tried to come back, fight and stay in the game, but in the end it was impossible for us to win." 

Game recap:

Nick Weiler-Babb, Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga, Othello Hunter and Elias Harris started the seventh game in 14 days for the Munich squad. As in the narrow loss against Real Madrid (68-64), the defense was the key ot success. Valencia needed more than three minutes for the first basket and on the other side, the Spaniards left Bonga standing open twice at the three-point line, who punished them for the mistakes (13-12/6th). But the guests were also convincing from downtown and Head coach Trinchieri had them pay special attention to Valencia's star Bojan Dubljevic. After the first points from the powerful center, he immediately took a timeout. As if the Italian had suspected it, Dubljevic then produced eleven points in a row and thus decided the first quarter in favor of Valencia - 26-23. 

Unimpressed by the Montenegrin's solo show, the hosts stayed in it. Obst found Winston after a strong move to the basket and 30 seconds later the Bayern guard hit again (30-29/12th). With a lot of confidence, the home side now took their shots. It was only due to the lack of luck that more of them didn't fall. With eleven offensive rebounds in the first half, the Munich team tried to force their offense and coupled with strong defense they pulled away bit by bit. An 18-5 run underlined the dominant performance in the second quarter and only a few minor lapses towards the end of the first half prevented a clear lead (43-39).   

Valencia fights at the rim, Giffey finds the answer

It didn't take long in the second half for the guests to find their rhythm again. But again, the Trinchieri team did not lose their patience. Weiler-Babb and Bonga palyed some stingy defense, stole the ball and ran the fastbreak with a finish to take a five-point lead (52-47/23rd). Meanwhile, Álex Mumbrú's team had a new target in its sights and attacked the zone more often. The plan worked as Winston had to take a seat midway through the third quarter with four personal fouls - 57-56 - lead to Valencia. Giffey wiped aside the emerging doubts with two quick threes and together with the energy of Gillespie and Harris, Bayern was left with a narrow lead (69-65).

Walden runs hot: Pours in 15 points in the final quarter

At the beginning of the final quarter Ognjen Jaramaz entered the score sheet with a tough three-pointer and Walden punished the Baskets' defense short time later to push the lead. With Harris, the point guard also managed to unnerve top scorer Dubljevic again and again with tight defense (78-70/33rd). One four-point play later and the lead was suddenly in double figures. After Dubljevic's immediate response, Trinchieri urged the sideline to calm down. The Spaniards tried to bring themselves back again via the free-throw line but the home side always had an answer ready and also hit their free throws. An incredible 15 points in the fourth quarter from Corey Walden secured the hard-fought EuroLeague victory (99-92).

SCHEDULE