FCBB lose 78-53 in Vítoria

Almost 100 points were scored in the last game against Maccabi (98-89), but the offense faltered on Friday night as the Bayern Basketball team, weakened by injuries lost the away game in Spain at Baskonia 78-53 and remain at four wins after twelve EuroLeague games. Bayern struggled to hit shots - especially from three - against their Spanish opponents (7-5).

Lucic, Rubit and Babb out

Bayern dominated the boards for a long time in front of 6,700 fans at the so far offensively strongest home team, but could not take advantage of this in their attack due to turnovers and only going 3/15 from three before the break (19% in the end). Without their scorers Lucic (elbow), Rubit (groin) and also Weiler-Babb (hip/), they looked in vain for offense.

Freddie Gillespie had three blocks, twelve rebounds and eight points; Andi Obst (12) scored the most points.

The Bavarians travel from Vítoria to the Rhineland on Saturday morning - on Sunday evening (18:00./MagentaSport) they host the Telekom Baskets in Bonn for the BBL top game. Next week, the Audi Dome will host the third EuroLeague Double Week against Real Madrid (Tue., Dec. 13) and Valencia (Thu., Dec. 15) as well as the Bundesliga home game against Braunschweig (Sat., Dec. 17, both at 20:30).

Points per quarter Bayern - Baskonia: 10-17, 20-27, 12-11, 11-23

Stats: Two-point shooting: 40 % (FCBB) // 56 % (Baskonia); Three-point shooting: 19 % // 33 %; Free-throw shooting: 92 % // 60 %; Rebounds:  39 // 39; Assists:  11 // 19;Turnovers: 12 // 7

Quotes:

Andrea Trinchieri: "Congratulations to Baskonia, they were better on both sides of the court and deserved to win. We didn't have enough - not enough energy, physical and mental energy, not enough concentration. It was a very bad performance, but I also have to stand by my players. Because they are tired, we play every 48 hours and today we just couldn't perform as we wanted. We are missing three players from the front five; that should not be an excuse and we tried to do without them. The only thing that could have helped us today would have been hitting open threes. But when you hit six out of 31, it's impossible; especially here, because at home they have great confidence and rhythm. (...) Our problem today was the offense. We did a lot to take away their threes. The idea was good, but if you want it to work, you have to be better on offense. Baskonia has very good chances to make the playoffs because they have guards who produce a lot and they have the best offense. (...)"

Niels Giffey: "This game unfortunately was without rhythm for us offensively. Defensively, we were very solid in phases against an extremely offensively strong team. It was a problem of rhythm, which we could not find. There we have to see that we can show a different face and a different tempo in the next game in Bonn. It's always hard against ACB teams, but we have to try to counter that better."  

Baskonia head coach, Joan Penarroya: "We showed a good defensive performance. Bayern only scored 23 points in the second half, so I'm proud of our defense. Our fans gave us great support here, as always."

Game recap:

Ognjen Jaramaz, Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga, Niklas Wimberg and Freddie Gillespie started the game for the seventh-placed team in the standings. The game was not even a minute old when Gillespie delivered the first highlight with a spectacular block against ex-Hamburger Maik Kotsar. For the first four minutes, the Munich team kept any danger away from their own basket. What head coach Trinchieri obviously disliked on the sidelines were the turnovers as the guests gave the ball away five times and thus allowed the Basques to get going. Markus Howard's buzzer beater meant the painful end of a largely even quarter (17-10).

Also in the second quarter, the shooting on the part of the Bavarians remained poor and especially from the three-point line nothing dropped, except for two buckets from Obst. Pierria Henry brought structure into the attacks on the opposite side. His ten points and five assists allowed the home side to pull away (33-24/16th).  With outstanding work on the offensive boards (eight offensive rebounds in the first half), the Trinchieri team kept itself halfway in the game. However, even the well-played attacks did not seem to want to fall this evening. The Spaniards went into halftime with a rhythm and a clear lead, 44-30.

Gillespie dominates at the basket

Bayern tried to carry the heavy burden in the second half again via the defense. Gillespie remained omnipresent in the zone and made it difficult for the Basques. As at the beginning, however, the reward on offense was missing - time-out Trinchieri (51-35/24th). It remained a tough struggle on both sides, in which Gillespie continued to play the central role. After his third block, the center reduced the deficit to eleven points. Thanks to a lot of physical effort, the quarter went to the guests 12-11 (55-42).

In the final quarter, Trinchieri had less than two minutes to call on his team again. Again, he was concerned with bringing some game flow into the offense, which succeeded via Othello Hunter. A little later, Bonga canned one of the few three-pointers of the night (59-49). However, the magic mark of a single-digit deficit wasn't in the cards. Even if the defense was right against the feared firepower of Vitoria, the offense remained hapless without the missing Vladimir Lucic and Augustine Rubit. 78-53 was the final score.