U18 Brose Bamberg remained alive for a spot in the final of the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Munich with a thrilling 90-91 victory over U18 FC Bayern Munich in Group A. Henri Drell poured in 40 points to go with 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals for Bamberg while Kay Bruhnke had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Brose and host team Bayern both had to wait for the result of the final game in the group between U18 Olympiacos Piraeus and U18 Real Betis Energia Plus Seville to see which would reach Sunday’s title game against U18 Real Madrid. Bayern was paced by 25 points from Sasha Grant while Kilian Binapfl had 24 points and 9 rebounds and Bruno Vrcic scored 21 points.

Drell hit two three-pointers and Moritz Plescher also connected from long range as Brose built an 8-13 lead. And it was 11-18 before Grant scored two baskets in an 0-7 spurt to even the game at 18-18. Bruhnke and Drell both knocked down long balls as Brose led 23-28 after 10 minutes. Drell continued his great game with 9 straight points as the Brose margin grew to 25-37. Bayern still trailed 33-41 and Bruhnke and Joshua Obiesie both had 4 points in a 4-10 spurt for a 37-51 advantage. Bayern was able to trim the deficit to 8 points but Brose went into the break up 44-56.

Drell came out of the intermission still hot with 4 points as Brose increased the cushion to 49-64. Bayern tried to come back with Vrcic picking up 8 points in cutting the deficit to 60-66. It was down to 67-71 late in the third quarter, which ended with Brose up 67-74. Bayern opened the fourth period with the first 4 points but Drell responded with 4 points in an 0-9 surge to make it 73-83. Grant stepped up with a three-pointer and two more baskets in getting the margin to 84-86 with a minute to play. Binapfl put Bayern ahead 87-86 only to see Drell punch back with a three-pointer. Daniel Zdravevski came back down and nailed a three-ball of his own with 28 seconds to play to put Bayern up 90-89. But Drell hit one more time with 19 seconds to give Brose the win.