Everything focused on Maodo Lo. The Alba Berlin point guard danced with the ball on the three-point line, dribbled a little and then found a good solution. On the right side Tim Schneider was completely free and one second before the end the power forward scored with a three to win.
Despite a mixed performance against strong Würzburg, the Berliners won the basketball Bundesliga 79:76 (19:21, 22:24, 20:14, 18:17) on Monday evening and remain the leaders. “We had many opportunities to move away and didn’t play so confidently, but in the end we still deserved to win,” said Schneider at “Magentasport”.
Coach Israel Gonzalez gave internationals Johannes Thiemann, Yovel Zoosman and Ben Lammers a break, while Tamir Blatt was back after his hand injury. It was a very close game from the start, in which Alba had big problems against the strong Würzburg guards.
While Stanley Whittaker (24 points), CJ Bryce (20) and Cameron Hunt took control of the game for Franks, Blatt, Lo and Jaleen Smith struggled for long stretches. Above all, the Berliners made far too many ball losses.
For a long time it was thanks to Louis Olinde that the deficit did not get too big. The winger scored from distance and close to the ring with impressive efficiency and was also alert on the defensive. In the end, Olinde missed his career record of 23 points by a hair’s breadth.
After Alba had missed several chances in the meantime to break away, the second Berlin defeat in the BBL was indicated shortly before the end. Four minutes before the end, Würzburg was ahead 72:68 and Alba didn’t do much offensively.
But then Gonzalez took a break and switched to zone defense. It was the decisive move. “The Zone caught us by surprise and we didn’t move enough,” Whittaker said. Alba turned the game around with a 7-0 run and Schneider found the perfect answer to the Würzburg counterattack. (tsp)
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