Real Madrid Baloncesto emphatically bounced back from last weekend’s Copa del Rey disappointment to demolish Bayern Munich 93-70 in Round 29 of the EuroLeague season.
Madrid suffered a 100-89 defeat at the hands of Kosner Baskonia on Sunday in the final of the Copa del Rey but Sergio Scariolo’s team returned to winning ways at the Movistar Arena. Los Merengues claimed revenge for their 90-84 defeat to Bayern in Round 7 earlier this season to record their second successive EuroLeague victory, having been defeated in each of their three previous fixtures in the competition.
However, for all of their struggles away from home, Madrid’s home form has been superior to any other team in the competition, and the Spanish champions displayed intent from minute one as they searched for their ninth consecutive EuroLeague success at the Movistar Arena. Led by the ever-impressive Mario Hezonja, the hosts surged into a 19-12 advantage inside the opening quarter and significantly extended this lead before half-time, in a second quarter which witnessed a total of 55 points, 34 of which went in Madrid’s favour.
A Bayern Munich side missing key players such as Andreas Obst and Justus Hollatz were unable to narrow the gap throughout the second half, despite Justinian Jessup accumulating a match total of 17 points, the most of any player from either roster.
By the end of the third quarter, the home side had stretched to 31 points ahead of the German champions and, although Bayern claimed a 23-15 victory in the final quarter, it was far too little, too late.
Svetislav Pešić’s team were thwarted all night by their wastefulness in front of the basket, where they scored less than half of their attempted two-pointers and only 29% of three-pointers. In comparison, the home side’s success rate for efforts within and behind the 6.75 metre line stood at 64% and 46% respectively.
Having been on a run of four consecutive EuroLeague victories, defeat in Madrid is Bayern’s second in a row in the competition. The Germans slip down to 15th in the table, with a season record of 12-17, and will be looking for a more positive result when they travel to Belgrade to take on Crvena Zvezda next Friday.
Meanwhile, Los Blancos’ 18th win in the competition was sufficient to retain 4th position in the standings, ahead of Virtus Bologna’s visit to the Movistar Arena in a week’s time.
Referees: Damir Javor (Slovenia), Gytis Vilius (Lithuania), Josip Radojković (Croatia)
Real Madrid Roster: Lyles; Abalde; Campazzo; Okeke; Hezonja; Maledon; Deck; Garuba; Tavares; Llull; Feliz; Len
Bayern Munich Roster: Dimitrijević; Da Silva; Rathan-Mayes; Giffey; Voigtmann; Jessup; Lučić; Jović; Fischer; Mike; Gabriel; McCormack