Albas Jonas Mattisseck is one of the returnees in the newly formed Berlin team (archive photo) Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From BZ/dpa
The Alba Berlin basketball players lost their semi-final at the Magentasport Cup in Munich.
The Berliners lost to Euroleague rivals Red Star Belgrade 56:74 (36:40) on Saturday. On Sunday, Alba will face the loser of the second semi-final encounter between hosts Bayern Munich and Virtus Bologna (3 p.m./Magentasport) in the game for third place. The best Berlin thrower was Tim Schneider with eleven points.
World Championship participants Gabriele Procida, Matteo Spagnolo (both Italy) and Ziga Samar (Slovenia) were part of the capital city team’s preparation for the first time. However, Louis Olinde and Christ Koumadje sat out. World champion Johannes Thiemann traveled with the team, but will not be playing this weekend.
The completely re-formed Alba team had coordination problems – especially in defense. “It’s a bit difficult at the moment. We’re all still a bit confused. “We have to get to know each other first and we don’t really know where the others are on the pitch,” said winger Schneider during the half-time break at Magentasport.
After the break, Alba was able to improve somewhat in defense, but there were still problems with the retreat. And there was little success offensively. Lots of misunderstandings, lots of mistakes. They only managed 20 points in the entire second half. So Alba had no chance until the end.