It was more competitive than many expected. Bayern and Alba fought a long, exciting duel in the first final. In the end, the hosts celebrated – also because they had a world champion.
In the final duel for the German basketball championship, FC Bayern fought its way to its first victory. The Munich team beat Alba Berlin 79:67 (46:43) in a long, exciting duel and took a 1:0 lead in the best-of-five series. Bayern’s best scorer was captain Vladimir Lucic with 17 points, while world champion Andreas Obst contributed 15 points with five successful three-pointers.
The injury-plagued Berliners fought bravely against defeat – but the guests ran out of energy in the finish. In the last quarter, the capital city team only managed five points, with Sterling Brown being the top scorer with 15 points.
The second final game of the German basketball heavyweights will take place on Monday (8.30 p.m.) again in Munich before moving on to Berlin. The first team to win three games in the best-of-five series will be the champion.
After a confident semi-final series against Würzburg, Bayern went into the duel as favorites, not least because they had three days more rest than Alba. But for a long time, there was no sign of fatigue among coach Israel Gonzalez’s guests.
There was bad news for the Berliners even before the game began: Captain Johannes Thiemann was unable to play due to a patella tendon injury – the world champion had to watch from the bench. The fact that the capital city team was also missing all of its nominal guards due to injury did not make things any easier.
“We won’t win like this”
And yet – or perhaps because of that – Berlin showed heart and didn’t let Bayern pull away. The Alba pros made strong shots from inside and outside the three-point line and the defense was also convincing. “In general, the game is going the way we would like it to,” said Berlin’s assistant coach Thomas Päch at halftime at Dyn.
Munich professional Carsen Edwards sounded different: “We need more stops, it goes back and forth. We won’t win like this.” That didn’t work at first, and Alba even took the lead in the third quarter. Only an energetic performance and especially Obst with two three-pointers allowed the home team to take the lead again to the cheers of the fans. The precision shooter clenched his fists and tensed his muscles.
It was only in the final period that the Berliners clearly ran out of energy, and almost finished the period without scoring a point. The savvy Bayern took advantage of this and brought the win over the end.
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
