For a long time they had a hard time with the Telekom Baskets Bonn, but when their playmaker Carsen Edwards, who initially appeared very discreet, became the man of the day within a few minutes, the Bayern basketball players finally found their rhythm. The defending champions won their BBL Cup round of 16 with 95:81 (41:46). And the Munich team can thank the American Edwards, who scored 23 points, for staying in the competition. Because in the first two quarters it didn’t look like that at all.
There was also a reason for the big problems that coach Gordon Herbert’s team had in the first half of the game. And his name was Darius McGhee: The 1.75 meter tall US professional converted five three-pointers in the first quarter for Bonn, he played cat and mouse with the Munich defense, which couldn’t get him under control. “Some important parts of our match plan were not carried out the way we wanted,” said Bayern’s sports director Dragan Tarlac, correspondingly annoyed at Dyn during the half-time break: “In defense we couldn’t stop Bonn’s throws. And on offense we have to pay more attention to the ball, there were too many turnovers. I hope that these two things will get better in the second half.” Regarding McGhee, Tarlac gave his team an extra task: “We have to be even more aggressive against him.”
Symptomatic: Three seconds before the end of the third quarter, McGhee committed a turnover
Things didn’t get any better for Bayern in the second half. A certain Darius McGhee scored again right after the restart – 48:41. But after that nothing worked together for Bonn and McGhee in the entire third quarter. The Munich team now saw their chance and scored, through Johannes Voigtmann, again through Edwards and through Oscar da Silva. Just six or seven minutes and the game was over. Symptomatic: Three seconds before the end of the third quarter, McGhee committed his fifth turnover, and Andreas Obst scored in return with the final siren to make it 70:61.
After that, Bayern made things exciting again. But they had their rebound strength – and Carsen Edwards, who almost out of nowhere became Bayern’s top scorer in the fourth quarter and led his team to the quarterfinals against Rasta Vechta.
