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Dramatic final phase: Alba happy with opening win

The German champions and cup winners opened the new BBL season with a home game against Hamburg Towers – and immediately experienced a drama without their own European Championship heroes, from which the “Albatrosse” ultimately emerged victorious.

Defending champions Alba Berlin have made a successful start to the new BBL season. The decimated Berliners, however, had to tremble until the end at home in front of 7328 spectators in the 81:78 (45:45) victory against Veolia Towers Hamburg. The best Berlin scorers were Luke Sikma with 16 points and Louis Olinde and Jaleen Smith with 14 points each.

Coach Israel Gonzalez gave the two German European Championship players Maodo Lo and Johannes Thiemann another breather. In addition, the injured Malte Delow and Marcus Eriksson were missing. Newcomers Gabriele Procida and Yanni Wetzell also did not play. Nevertheless, the German champions started very spiritedly and quickly took a 7:2 lead.

But towards the end of the first quarter, the mistakes in the Berlin game increased. Before the second quarter, Alba fell behind for the first time (24:25). In addition, there were some coordination problems in the defence, so that Hamburg often scored easily. This made for a very close and hard-fought game.

After the change of ends, Alba started with a 6:0 run, but then failed to pull away. The hosts had a lot of problems with the very physical play of the Hamburg team, but were now defensively better. So it remained a very close game, the lead changed back and forth. The decision was only made in the last second when Tamir Blatt converted two free throws.

Alba Berlin – Hamburg Towers 81:78 (26:25,19:20,20:18,16:15)

Points Alba Berlin: Sikma 16, Olinde 14, Smith 14, Schneider 12, Lammers 9, Mattisseck 6, Blatt 5, Zoosman 4, Koumadje 1
Hamburg Towers: Childs 18, McCullum 12, Woodard 12, Clark II 10, Samar 9, Meisner 8, Schoormann 6, Wohlfarth-Bottermann 3
Spectators: 7328

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