Telekom Baskets Bonn have come another step closer to the biggest success in their club’s history and have reached the final of the Basketball Champions League.
At the Final Four in Malaga on Friday evening, the Rhinelanders prevailed in a dramatic game 69:67 (41:31) against the favored hosts Unicaja Malaga and made it sensationally into the final. There meets Bonn on Sunday (8 p.m.) on Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem, which had previously surprisingly won 69:68 against defending champion Lenovo Tenerife.
Bonn without Karsten Tadda, but with halftime lead
The game started very intensely and at high speed. With the score of 4:2 for the hosts, the game had to be briefly interrupted because over one of the baskets the shotclock had failed. After the technology worked again, Malaga sat down for the first time with 8:4.
After the Bonn team equalized to make it 8:8 shortly afterwards, the Spaniards pulled away to 20:11 thanks to a few successful threesomes. But the Baskets fought back with their own 9:0 run and went into the first quarter break with an encouraging 22:22. Bonn’s Karsten Tadda had to leave early and could no longer be used.
Bonn took the momentum into the second quarter and continued their run there until 26:22. A three by Tyson Ward to make it 31:24 forced Malaga to call a time-out. The game became increasingly physical, peppered with numerous fouls and free throws. With this intensity, the Bonners got along very well and played themselves into a frenzy.
A threesome of TJ shorts brought the Baskets the first double-digit lead of the game (41:31), on the other hand Leon Kratzel followed up with a monster block. The Bundesliga club went into the half-time break with a strong ten-point lead.
Malaga’s comeback ends with Collin Malcolm
After the change of sides, Malaga reduced the deficit point by point with a lot of effort until Javontae Hawkins ended a smaller dry spell in Bonn with a jump shot to 50:42. After two controversial foul whistles against players in Bonn, action was taken Baskets coach Tuomas Iisalo a technical foul for complaining.
A three by Dylan Osetkowski brought Malaga within four points, but Collin Malcolm responded immediately with their own goal from distance to make it 57:50 after the third quarter.
It wasn’t a nice game in the last quarter either, but it was an extremely intense game. With a dunk shortened David Kravish after a rare defensive failure in Bonn for Malaga to 52:58, which resulted in a quick time-out for the baskets.
However, this could not stop the Spaniards from catching up, because a little later the Bonn lead had shrunk to one point (58:57). Then came the great hour of Collin Malcolmwho scored four points in a row and was also on the defensive with a strong block (64:58).
Dramatic final phase
Three minutes before the end, Malagas also got Coach Ibon Navarro his first technical foul. From the free-throw line, Bonn were able to hold their lead again. In a wild last minute, both teams initially threw away free throws until Kendrick Perry 30 seconds before the end with a three point shortened to 63:67. The Spaniards immediately fouled the following Bonn ball possession and sent shorts to the line, who safely sunk both throws.
Dario Brizuela brought Malaga back to within four points with 20 seconds remaining. A ball loss from shorts led to quick points from Melvin Ejim to 67:69 from the Spaniards’ point of view. With just ten seconds left on the clock shorts sent to the free-throw line again and missed both attempts. Perry could have won the game in the final second with a three for Malaga, but didn’t score.
was the top scorer of the game shorts with 21 points, followed by his teammates Finn Delaney and Hawkins with 13 counters each.
