Albas Johannes Thiemann in a duel with Augustine Rubit from Munich Photo: city press
From BZ/dpa
Alba Berlin has won the first final game of the German Basketball Championship. In front of 10,567 spectators on Friday evening, the defending champions defeated their long-time rival Bayern Munich after a strong last quarter with 86:73 (40:43).
Alba leads 1-0 in the best-of-five series. The second game will take place in Munich on Tuesday. The best thrower for the Berliners was Yovel Zoosman with 14 points, while Andreas Obst was the most successful for Bayern with 17 points.
Both teams needed little time to get up to speed. Bayern defended very carefully and gave Alba little space. So the hosts rarely got into the tempo game. But the Bavarians also missed a few throws, so that the Berliners were usually just ahead in the first quarter.
Since both teams defended very intensively under the basket, they often looked for free positions beyond the three-point line. In the first half, Alba hit nine long-range shots, Bayern eight. However, the hosts made a few turnovers, which punished Bayern coldly. Just under three minutes before the break, the guests took the lead up to that point (40:35).
Bayern defended close to the man, giving Maodo Lo and the rest of Alba a hard time Photo: city press
After the change of sides, the threesome festival continued. Bayern were more consistent and held the narrow lead for a long time.
However, Alba fought back in the last section and took the lead again after a 9-0 run (72:65). That was the preliminary decision, because Alba couldn’t take that away from Bayern, who were now clearly getting tired.
