By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Third win in the last four games for Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, as they defeated FC Bayern Munich 78:53 without much trouble.
Pierria Henry led the team from Vitoria to their seventh win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (7-5) with a double-double of 14 points and ten assists for a PIR of 28.
“It’s been a great run. We are getting ourselves together and building our chemistry, and it’s beautiful when we can execute our game plan”, Henry said.
Matthew Costello followed him with 14 points, seven rebounds, and just one missed shot for a PIR of 21, while Steven Enoch added 10 points and five rebounds.
Andreas Obst had 12 points for injury-plagued Bayer, while Cassius Winston added 10 points.
Andrea Trinchieri didn’t have captain Vladimir Lucic and Augustine Rubit at his disposal through injuries, Nick Weiler Babb sat out the whole game, while Zan Mark Sisko is still absent. Hence, the German team suffered their eighth defeat and fell to a 4-8 score.
“We needed more to compete. We can say it is a very bad performance, but I have to stand by my players and say that we are tired, as we play every 48 hours, and today we couldn’t perform as we wanted. We missed three players from the starting five, and the only thing that would help tonight was open threes. When you shoot six out of 31, it’s very difficult“, Andrea Trinchieri said at the press conference after the game.
The home team had a seven-point lead after an uneventful first quarter with 27 points from both sides. Rhythm changed in the second period, but Baskonia still controlled the flow, grabbed a double-digit lead in the last few minutes, and went to a break with a 44-30 advantage.
Bayern improved defensively in the third quarter but never really threatened the hosts’ lead. Everything was clear in the middle of the final period, Bavarians couldn’t find a way back, and Baskonia used the chance to get over 20 points in front and register a blow-out win in the end.
“It’s not easy to play a very good Bayern Munich that plays physical. We had problems at the start because the rhythm was not what we were used to. In the end, we controlled rhythm and got an important victory,” the head coach of Baskonia, Joan Penarroya, stated after the game.
Photo: twitter.com/Baskonia