By Cesare Milanti/ info@eurohoops.net
In front of an almost sold-out Audi Dome, Bayern Munich managed to find the 91-84 victory against Virtus Bologna in the second-ever encounter between the two teams.
Cassius Winston was consistent since the start of the game and ended the encounter by scoring 15 points while being perfect at the line (6/6). The other rookie Freddie Gillespie was a factor on second balls, capturing 4 offensive rebounds out of 9.
As expected, Augustine Rubit was one of the best players on both sides of the court for Andrea Trinchieri’s team. The former Zalgiris Kaunas big had 18 points and 9 rebounds. Nick Weiler-Babb added 10 points and 7 rebounds.
“Our idea was to try to play consistently to survive the peaks of Virtus. We led for the whole game, we had a good contribution from every player on both ends of the court. I’m very happy for my players and for the performance. Elias Harris was playing great and it’s a bitter feeling, I hope he can come back as soon as possible”, Andrea Trinchieri said after the win
Playing against his former head coach at Brose Bamberg, Daniel Hackett had 12 points. Milos Teodosic went close to a double-double with 14 points and 9 assists but also recorded 4 turnovers. The Serbian legend reached the 3000 points club in the EuroLeague.
Replacing Iffe Lundberg and playing only his 9th game of the season, Marco Belinelli scored 10 off the bench. Isaia Cordinier added 14 points.
“Bayern deserved to win. We fought, we tried but I think that our fans can be satisfied with the effort the players did. In offense we made too many mistakes, it was kind of a back-and-forth. Rebounds were on their side basically thought-out the whole game. We have to improve that to win a game on the road against a great team like Bayern”, Sergio Scariolo said after the loss.
Both teams struggled a lot from beyond the arc (Bayern 5/21, Virtus 8/27) in what was a very tough and physical match.
Basically, the same that happened in the first-ever encounter between the two, in Round 2. Bayern Munich, this time, was way better at getting rebounds (37 vs 28) and Virtus never really reduced the gap.
Andrea Trinchieri didn’t have team captain Vladimir Lucic and Andreas Obst due to an elbow injury, while Zan Sisko is out indefinitely.
Sergio Scariolo, instead, decided to sideline Awudu Abass despite he started working with the team after recovering from his long-time knee injury. Iffe Lundberg was out due to a finger problem.
In Round 22, Bayern Munich (9-12) will travel to Valencia on January 31 at 20:30 CET. Virtus Bologna (9-12) will host Crvena Zvezda on the same day at 21:00 CET.
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague