Albas Jonas Mattisseck doing the free throw (archive photo) Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From BZ/dpa
The basketball players from Alba Berlin botched their dress rehearsal before the start of the Bundesliga.
In the last test match, the Berliners lost on Saturday evening against the Italian first division team Aquila Basket Trento in Lugo with 69:81 (21:41). This means there were only two wins in six test games. The best Berlin throwers were Matteo Spagnolo with 17 and Johannes Thiemann with 15 points.
On Thursday, Alba will play his first competitive game at MLP Academics Heidelberg. Until then, coach Israel González still has a lot of work to do to put the newly formed team together. The Spaniard did not have the full squad available in any of the preparatory games.
The injured Tim Schneider, Yanni Wetzell, Justin Bean and Sterling Brown were missing against last year’s sixth-placed team in the Italian Lega A on Saturday evening. Captain Thiemann was back on the plate for the German national team for the first time after his World Cup title.
The game took place in Lugo, a town badly affected by floods in the summer. The proceeds from the sold-out charity game therefore went entirely to the community in Emilia-Romagna.