The basketball players of FC Bayern Munich have clinched their tenth win in the twelfth game of the season in the Bundesliga. In front of 10,454 spectators in Mannheim’s SAP Arena, Bayern won a hard-fought game 87-83 (50-51) against MLP Academics Heidelberg.
Bayern remain third in the table, but only have one more defeat than leaders Telekom Baskets Bonn and second place Alba Berlin.
In the first three quarters, no team was able to pull away by more than five points. That changed in the final section, which the guests opened with a 9-0 run. A little later, Munich didn’t allow a goal from the field for five minutes, so Heidelberg couldn’t turn the game around. Basketball international Isaac Bonga led Bayern with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Bayern without sick head coach Trinchieri
The Academics actually play their home games in the SNP dome in Heidelberg, but moved to the SAP Arena in Mannheim for the game against Munich, where the first division ice hockey team Adler Mannheim and the first division handball team Rhein-Neckar Löwen play. Bayern had to play without their sick head coach Andrea Trinchieri, who was replaced by assistant coach Adriano Vertemati.
Meanwhile, Alba Berlin has caught up with table leaders Telekom Baskets Bonn with their tenth win in eleven games of the season, but remains second due to the worse point difference. The reigning champion controlled the second half of the east derby against Syntainics MBC from Weißenfels and achieved the fourth success in a row with an 86:60 (37:29) victory.
The EWE Baskets Oldenburg exacerbate the crisis of the Veolia Towers Hamburg. With a 96:95 (53:47) away win, the Lower Saxony inflicted the sixth defeat in a row on Hamburg.
DeWayne Russell (17 points) hit a try for the win four seconds from time on the free throw line. In another derby on the eleventh match day, the MHP giants Ludwigsburg defeated ratiopharm Ulm at home with 87:84 (43:42).