Alba Berlin has won a surprise victory in the Euroleague. On Thursday evening, the Bundesliga basketball team narrowly beat the Spanish leaders Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 85-84 (54-48) in front of their home crowd.
The best Berlin throwers were Jaleen Smith with 18 points, as well as Maodo Lo, Louis Olinde and Tamir Blatt with eleven points each.
Despite the win, Alba remains at the bottom of the table in European competition. The Berliners continue on Sunday in the Bundesliga with an away game at their big rival Bayern Munich (6 p.m.).
Decisive in the last attack
In front of 6,545 spectators, the hosts in the arena at Ostbahnhof were highly concentrated from the start. On the offensive, they convinced with high shooting rates, while defending intensively at the back and hardly giving the Basques any points. Alba was clearly in the lead after the first quarter with 27:14.
After that, however, the guests got into the game better and suddenly hit one long-range shot after the other. Coach Israel Gonzalez’s team found little to stop the Spaniards’ three-pointers and fell behind for the first time at 31:32. The game now became hectic and aggressive, with which Alba coped a little better and gained a small lead again at half-time (54:48).
In the third quarter, the Berliners stayed ahead and showed themselves combative. Above all, the strong defense ensured ball wins again and again. At the beginning of the final period they were ten points ahead (80-70) and everything looked like a win. But Baskonia started another run and made for an exciting final phase. 2.6 seconds before the end, Alba was only one point ahead and the guests came back for the decisive last throw, which they then missed.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, January 5th, 2022, 9:15 p.m
