Louis Olinde from ALBA Berlin tries a layup Photo: Mathias Renner/City Press
By Nicolas Sowa
The Alba Berlin basketball team ended their Euroleague season with a home win. On Thursday evening, in front of 8,972 spectators, the Berliners clearly defeated the French champion Asvel Villeurbanne with 88:71 (38:36).
Should FC Bayern and Panathinaikos Athens lose their last games on Friday, Alba would still overtake both teams in the table. The best Berlin throwers were Captain Luke Sikma and Louis Olinde, each with twelve points.
The hosts started the game with a lot of momentum and were quickly 5-0 up. But the shooting rate didn’t last long, because the Berliners then found it difficult to attack the French. Many throws missed their target. But since the guests didn’t do much better either, Alba initially stayed ahead.
However, the German champions were increasingly having problems under the basket, where the 2.21-man Youssoupha Fall was able to exploit his size advantages. Ironically, in this game Christ Koumadje (also 2.21 meters tall) was missing because of knee problems. After almost 17 minutes, the guests equalized again to 32:32.
After the break, Alba even fell behind for the first time (40:42). But the Berliners responded immediately with a 16:4 run and were even able to gain a double-digit lead.
The hosts got back into the tempo game better and thus kept the lead. In the last quarter, Alba was clearly superior to the slacking French and continued to pull away.