Alba is only a win from the record cup winner title. The Berliners won on Saturday at the top Four of the basketball Bundesliga in the semifinals against the Niners Chemnitz with 91:81 (41:39) and thus fight on Sunday (15 o’clock, live! At Alba) for their eleventh national Cup success. So far, Alba won the BBL Cup as Bayer Leverkusen ten times.
In the final, the capitals hit the Hakro Merlins Crailsheim. The Swabia continued in the first semi-final against the basketball lion Braunschweig with 85:71 (46:36). Best Berliner Werfer against Chemnitz were Maodo Lo and Jalenen Smith with 19 points. Lastly, Alba won against Crailsheim in the league clearly with 106: 74. “That has nothing to mean. Tomorrow is Cup Time, as two teams want to win,” said Smith at “Magenta Sport”.
The second quarter was crucial because we have only admitted eight points.
Maodo Lo
Chemnitz did not show respect from the beginning before the favorite. The surprise team of the previous season began brave and surprised the Berliner with aggressive and variable game. The first quarter decided the niners at 31:23 for themselves, at the beginning of the second portion, the Chemnitz projection even has ten points.
Alba was very impressed and hard. Also because in Lo and Luke Sikma first did not find the two stars of the Berliner. That changed towards the end of the second quarter. Lo, for weeks in top form, now the command took over and led Alba at a 11: 0 run. At the break, the captains with 41:39, though Chemnitz had played an impressive first half. “The second quarter was crucial because we have only admitted eight points,” Lo said.
After the break, Alba expanded his lead continuously. In the meantime, the Euroleague team led 13 points. But the Chemnitz, who had often made their comeback qualities in this season, could not shake off and came up again in the final portion to five points (68:73). But Lo and Smith stopped the catch-up of the cakes outsider, which had defeated in the quarter-final defending champion Bayern Munich.
Weidemann: “We have been donated today”
The frustration of the chemniaters was tall. “We have been donated today,” said Point Guard Nelson Weidemann. Phased to feel like “eight for five” on the parquet, the 22-year-old apparently said with regard to those in his opinion on one-sided whistling impartial. “But you are always seen twice in life.”
In the first semi-final, Crailsheim had prevailed thanks to a strong last quarter against Braunschweig. Best thrower at the Merlin was T.J. Shorts with 26 points, with the lions David Krämer came to 25 meters. “That’s a huge thing for us,” said Crailsheim’s coach Sebastian Gleim after the game at “Magenta Sport”. Even the outstanding shorts was overjoyed. “That means us everything. You play the way to win titles, and we have the chance now.” Braunschweig’s Krämer was proud of his team despite the defeat. “We have given everything. It was a great fight,” said the national player.