Five months after winning the BBL final, FC Bayern’s basketball team has also won the rematch against Ulm. However, the newly formed Danube Swabians put up fierce resistance—right into overtime.
There was no sign of Ulm’s recent slump in results – they had lost their last five BBL games – at the start. Defensively, they made life difficult for a Bayern team that looked somewhat exhausted, while offensively, veteran guard Mark Smith (18, 7/11) provided the necessary production with eight points in the first quarter alone.
After the first quarter break, Munich got into its rhythm, with youngster Nikolas Sermpezis initiating a 13:1 run with a three-pointer. Anigbata and Diakite tied the score shortly before the break, before Jovic gave Munich a narrow halftime lead (36:38) with a layup.
After the break, it was Ulm who got off to a much better start. After three-pointers by Jensen and Anigbata, Sengfelder put Ulm back in front after two minutes. Osborne even extended the lead to +6 from distance with 4:30 remaining in the quarter. However, those were also Ulm’s last points of the period. Munich did better, scoring six consecutive points to take the lead again (51:52).
Sengfelder prevents da Silva from scoring the winning basket
Bayern’s run continued across quarters. Jovic, Giffey, and Rathan-Mayes put the visitors up by 7 before Ulm’s Smith broke the spell after four more long minutes. A three-pointer by Jensen made things really exciting. The game was evenly matched and the arena was buzzing. With three seconds left, Munich suddenly found themselves close to victory again after Oscar da Silva converted a layup plus one over youngster Milicic. But Chris Sengfelder had the last word for the time being, hitting a difficult three-pointer on the run to tie the game and send it into overtime.
The drama continued here. On the first possession, Jessup fouled Ulm’s top scorer Smith for his fifth foul and put the visitors ahead from the line, but they were never really able to pull away. With half a second left on the clock, Dinwiddie put the FCBB up by three. Time was up again for long-range specialist Sengfelder, who tied the game – in the same play as before in the fourth quarter – but this time missed.