After the fourth cup win in the club’s history, the Bayern Munich basketball players danced exuberantly in the rain of confetti. Captain Vladimir Lucic, who has just returned from a month-long injury break, lifted the trophy together with national player Andreas Obst, managing director Marko Pesic hugged coach Andrea Trinchieri relieved. Everyone involved in Munich could see how happy they were after a disappointing season in the league and Euroleague.
“A title is always good,” said Pesic on Sunday after the sovereign and deserved 90:78 in the final against hosts EWE Baskets Oldenburg. “Especially in this group, which has already had to put up with a lot of setbacks this season.” And three-point specialist Obst admitted frankly: “That takes some pressure off us and makes it a little easier for us in the coming weeks and months.” It was for Bayern the first title since winning the cup two years ago.
“That’s what you’re measured at FC Bayern,” said President Herbert Hainer, who accompanied the team throughout the weekend and gave preference to Oldenburg over Mönchengladbach, where the footballers went 2-3 on Saturday. “We had a really great weekend. The team performed great. There are no two opinions that we deserved to be cup winners.”
Oldenburg’s Pedro Calles, on the other hand, stood on the edge of the field and admitted: “It’s not the best feeling. I’m still proud of my players. We weren’t good enough to beat Bayern. Bayern have a lot of experience, we gained a little bit of experience today.”
The Oldenburgers missed their second cup triumph after 2015, when they also won in their own hall. The best pitchers at Bayern were Corey Walden and Vladimir Lucic with 18 points each. For Lucic it was a made-to-measure comeback after a long injury break. For the home side, DeWayne Russell had 28 points.
On Saturday, Bayern prevailed in the prestige duel against defending champion Alba Berlin with 83:77 and particularly impressed with their intensive defense. However, Munich had to pay dearly for the victory. Augustine Rubit retired with suspected Achilles tendon rupture and threatens to miss Bayern for months.
Rubit was already operated on Sunday. “He is currently being operated on in Murnau near Munich. It doesn’t look good, it’s an Achilles tendon injury. It doesn’t look good,” said managing director Marko Pesic before the final at MagentaSport. “The season is over for him. That brought us closer together again,” said Pesic after the game. On crutches and with tears in his eyes, the 33-year-old American hobbled out of the hall on Saturday evening. Rubit twisted his ankle in the second half.
Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri therefore had the finale under the motto “Victories for Rubit”. “We will also play and fight for him,” Trinchieri announced. “Rubit is like a cake. Everyone should take a piece of it and take on some of their tasks.” Bayern also laid out the power forward’s shirt on the substitutes’ bench.
And indeed, the serious injury seemed to bring the Bayern team even closer together. Bayern started the game with a lot of energy and quickly pulled away to 13 points. At first, only Russell opposed the hosts. The point guard from the USA, who had already surpassed Ludwigsburg with 26 points in the 92:86 in the semifinals against the MHP giants, scored the first eleven points for Lower Saxony and thus kept Oldenburg a little bit in the game.
After the change of sides, Bayern even extended their lead to 17 points – the game was decided early on. Although Oldenburg never gave up, the EWE Baskets could no longer pose a real threat to the big favourite.
