Alba Berlin defeats Göttingen in the cup and moves into the Final Four
Revenge against Gottingen
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Alba Berlin wins with a quick 30 points and is in the cup semi-finals
Alba Berlin has ended its losing streak and now meets FC Bayern in the BBL Cup semi-finals. BG Göttingen was only able to keep up with the favorites at the beginning on Sunday – and quickly had to accept 100 points at home.
Alba Berlin has reached the semi-finals of the BBL Cup and will face FC Bayern Munich there. The defending champion won 99:71 (51:46) at BG Göttingen on Sunday evening, after which the top four were drawn.
The team coached by Israel Gonzalez turned things around after their last four defeats in a row across all competitions – one of them in the league against Göttingen. The top scorer this time was Malte Delow, who was born in Berlin, with 18 points in 23 minutes, ahead of Luke Sikma with 14 points.
After Alba Berlin suffered a painful 95:96 defeat against Göttigen the week before in the Bundesliga, the double winner naturally wanted to do better this time. “The whole intensity. We realized last week that we can’t start a game like this,” said Delow on Sunday evening after the game at “Magentasport”. The manner of victory will help the team after the last difficult phase.
The Berliners started the game in a leading way and quickly took a 6-0 lead thanks to points from Louis Olinde and Johannes Thiemann.
Topic again: the free throws
After that, a balanced and entertaining cup game unfolded, in which two strong attacking teams initially met at eye level. Led by Rayshaun Hammonds (9 points in the first quarter), Göttingen was able to equalize in the meantime, at the end of the first period it was 27:24 for Alba Berlin.
In the atmospheric Göttingen Arena, the Berliners failed to set themselves apart significantly in the second quarter – partly because they performed at best from the free-throw line on average (15 out of 22 in the first half).
But as a result, the Berliners understood better and better how to work out free throwing positions at the height of the three-point line and also to play an effective pick-and-roll, so that they took the lead 60:48 in the meantime. At that point, the cup winner’s field rate was an impressive 74 percent.
In the third quarter, the home team gave in, failed to hit the long-distance attempts and had no answer to Sikma, Lammers and Thiemann on their own board. At the end of the quarter, the guests were able to pull away with 22 points, which almost decided the game. Even in the final quarter, the guests didn’t let anything burn, still managed to score numerous baskets worth seeing, so that the party was clearly won in the end.
Top Four on February 18th and 19th
With the victory, the Berliners followed the giants Ludwigsburg, EWE Baskets Oldenburg and FC Bayern Munich into the cup semi-finals. The semi-final against Bayern is certainly the early final between the two favourites. The top four tournament for the trophy will take place on February 18th and 19th, 2023 – where, according to BBL Managing Director Stefan Holz, will be decided in the next two weeks. According to Alba Managing Director Marco Baldi, the Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena and the Max-Schmeling-Halle would be occupied on these dates. The Top Four will therefore “definitely not take place in Berlin,” said Baldi on “Magentasport”.
The next task for Alba is already waiting for the Löwen Braunschweig on Tuesday. Göttingen will play in Ludwigsburg next Saturday.
Broadcast: rbb24, December 4th, 2022, 10 p.m