Alba captain Luke Sikma confidently pulls down a rebound Photo: Sebastian Heger/dpa
From BZ/dpa
Alba Berlin remains on the road to success in the basketball Bundesliga. The defending champion dominated the top game on Sunday against the newly promoted Rostock Seawolves, who had also been unbeaten until then, and clearly won 104:70 (46:36).
Alba has won all five league games with it. Best Berlin throwers were Yanni Wetzell with 19 and Louis Olinde with 16 points.
Coach Israel Gonzalez had Jaleen Smith and Johannes Thiemann, both injured, available again. But Christ Koumadje and Gabriele Procida got a breather. It was an intense game right from the start because Rostock kept up with Berlin’s pace. And so the first few minutes were very balanced.
Luke Sikma tries to get past Rostock’s Derrick Alston Jr Photo: Sebastian Heger/dpa
The hosts were particularly accurate from a distance, Alba had advantages under the opposing basket. So the Berliners always had second chances to throw. At the beginning of the second quarter, the lead of the defending champion became double digits for the first time (28:18). In the meantime, Rostock came back up, but Alba remained calmer until the break.
After the change of sides, Berlin’s dominance continued to grow. Defensively, they only allowed a little and every mistake made by Rostock was punished coldly. Towards the end of the third quarter, the lead grew to 20 points for the first time (66:46). And Alba couldn’t take that away until the end.