Bayern sinks ASVEL on the road

FC Bayern Munich never trailed en route to a 68-77 win at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in their rescheduled Round 18 contest on Tuesday night. The win improved Bayern's record to 10-11, while ASVEL dropped to 9-12 on the season. Bayern took control early and then pulled away to a double-digit margin with a dominant second quarter. ASVEL never got closer than 8 points the rest of the way. Augustine Rubit shined with 17 points plus 10 rebounds. Ognjen Jaramaz netted 11, while Andreas Obst scored 10 in a victory. Chris Jones led ASVEL with 14 points and 6 assists and Youssoupha Fall also scored 14. James Gist finished with 10 in a losing effort.

Rubit scored twice inside before a triple from Lucic made it 6-11. Fall had his way inside on the offensive end and Jones made a runner before feeding Dylan Osetkowski for a dunk to cut it to 12-15. Bayern remained in front thanks to a triple from Deshaun Thomas and Zan Mark Sisko beating the buzzer with a floater to make it 16-20.

Fall had another put-back to open the second quarter, but Nick Weiler-Babb once and Hunter twice hit consecutive long jumpers. Obst followed with a triple and a runner to make it 18-31. Jones snapped a 0-11 run by knocking down a jumper and kept ASVEL going with a triple and a dish to Marcos Knight for an easy basket to get the margin to 25-33. But Jaramaz hit a three to restore Bayern's double-digit lead before close-range baskets from Weiler-Babb and Thomas, followed by a last-second triple from Lucic, had Bayern up 29-45 at halftime.

Early in the second half, Leon Radosevic drained a three-pointer that made it an 18-point affair. Knight scored 6 points and Kahudi knocked down a triple for the hosts, but Rubit kept the margin intact with 6 points of his own. Jones scored a runner in traffic and Fall had a layup to get the hosts within 42-54. Bayern scored the last 7 points of the quarter, including 5 from Obst, who had a corner triple and a driving layup to make it 42-61 going into the fourth quarter. Despite a deep hole, ASVEL was not going away. Lacombe scored twice and Osetkowski had a basket before Okobo cut it to 52-64. Jaramaz stopped the visitors' bleeding with a three-pointer, but Jones had a floater and a transition triple to keep ASVEL's hopes alive. Jaramaz got a lucky bounce on another triple to make it 59-72 with just over 4 minutes to go as the visitors closed it out.

Bayern makes runs in second quarter

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne got within 2 points at the start of the second quarter, but FC Bayern Munich scored on the next six possessions. The run of 11 unanswered points started with a long baseline jumper from Nick Weiler-Babb and was followed with a pair of long Js by big man Othello Hunter. After an ASVEL timeout, a triple and a runner by Andreas Obst opened a double-digit margin. After the strong start to the quarter, Bayern also had a strong finish. ASVEL got within 25-33, but the visitors replied with a 4-12 run that saw Ognjen Jaramaz and Vladimir Lucic make three-pointers to open a 29-45 halftime lead.

By the numbers: Bayern shoots the lights out

In the first half, FC Bayern Munich did not have a single offensive rebound. The team also had no steals while it committed 6 turnovers in the first two quarters. What Bayern did have was a 16-point halftime lead, as it never trailed. Bayern did not have any offensive rebounds because there were not that many its players could even attempt to grab as the team shot the lights out from all ranges in the first half. Bayern was 14 of 17 for an outstanding 82.4% two-point shooting with several of the shots falling being mid-range and long jumpers. To add to ASVEL's misery, the visitors also made 5 triples on 10 attempts in the first two quarters. Bayern finished the game with 70% two-point accuracy, tying the club record, while also netting 11 triples at a 47.8% success rate. Such shooting overcame any and all turnovers and had Bayern in complete control.

Big-time bench performers

Augustine Rubit paced the visitors with 17 points and 10 rebounds, but Bayern had five more players score between 8 and 11 points. Three of them – Andreas Obst, Nick Weiler-Babb and Othello Hunter – came off the bench to give the team a major spark. Obst finished with 10 points in less than 15 minutes on the floor, Weiler-Babb scored 9 and also dished 4 assists, while Hunter scored 8 points and had 4 rebounds. Add Zan Mark Sisko's 4 points and 6 assists, and Bayern's bench did a great job on this night, outscoring ASVEL's bench 36-26.