By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
FC Barcelona remained on the winning track despite the strong efforts of FC Bayern Munich and grabbed an 80-72 victory on the road in the second round of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague ahead of a challenging double-game week. It was a revenge of sorts for Barca, which had lost both meetings against the Germans in the 2020-21 campaign.
Cory Higgins and Brandon Davies led the efforts of the Spanish side with 16 and 15 points respectively, and Nikola Mirotic signed off with 11 points.
After trailing by 16 points at the end of the third quarter, Bayern enjoyed a small run early in the fourth to cut down the deficit, thanks to the efforts of Darrun Hilliard (18 points, 3 steals), though that wasn’t enough to put them on the winning column this week.
DeShaun Thomas (14 points) made it a six-point game with two minutes to go, though four fouls on Higgins and Davies in a sequence determined the final result for Barcelona.
As Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri said: “They were better. We didn’t find a way to generate offense, and they deserved to win. We fought but definitely, it wasn’t enough. Congratulations to Barca.”
Sarunas Jasikevicius’ squad will look to keep up their momentum next week when they face Olympiacos in Round 3 and AS Monaco in Round 4, while Bayern will look to bounce back in its trip to Russia against UNICS and Zenit.
Photo: EuroLeague