Clear size disadvantages for Alba’s Louis Olinde against Danko Brankovic from Bayern Photo: Angelika Warmuth/dpa
By Nicolas Sowa
Alba started the new Euroleague season with an expected defeat. Despite a good first half, the Berliners lost 68:80 (44:36) in the Bundesliga duel against long-term rivals FC Bayern Munich on Thursday evening.
The best Berlin throwers were world champions Johannes Thiemann and Louis Olinde with twelve points each.
Coach Israel Gonzalez only had eleven players available as Yanni Wetzell (ankle injury), Christ Koumadje (knee problems), Elias Rapieque (metacarpal fracture) and Tim Schneider (eye infection) were missing. His team also needed some time to get into the game. Alba was quickly 2:8 behind, but then countered with a 9:0 run.
Berlin’s world champion Johannes Thiemann in a duel with Bayern’s Freddie Gillespie Photo: Angelika Warmuth/dpa
Now the guests were wide awake. Due to the loss of two centers, they had considerable problems with rebounding (overall score: 17:48), but they were able to keep up the pace and score points. Bayern also missed a lot of shots. Shortly before the break the lead was briefly in double digits (44:33).
However, Bayern came out of the locker room much more focused and Alba allowed the hosts too many offensive rebounds and thus repeatedly had new shooting opportunities. There was hardly anything going on for the guests in the third quarter, when they were literally overrun with 7:25 left.
Alba then prevented a more significant defeat, but they were no longer able to put Bayern in danger.