Alba Berlin surprisingly celebrated a home win in the Euroleague. On Thursday evening, the Berliners won against the Russian top club Zenit St. Petersburg with 76:67 (34:34).
Alba remains in the bottom third of the table in 15th place. The best Berlin throwers were Maodo Lo with 15 and Christ Koumadje, Yovel Zoosman and Ben Lammers with nine points each.
Coach Israel Gonzalez was without Louis Olinde, who will be out for several weeks due to a serious capsule injury to his left thumb, and Marcus Eriksson (foot injury). Both teams pushed the pace from the start. After three days without playing, Alba came into the game more rested than usual and acknowledged this additional energy with a corresponding performance.
The Berliners started powerfully and secured several rebounds at the beginning. At the end of the first quarter they were 23:12 ahead. But the comfortable advantage narrowed more and more in the course of the second quarter, St. Petersburg got into the game better, so that the half-time break was tied with a draw.
After the change of sides, a completely open game developed in which the lead changed. Alba was only able to break away a little in the final phase and meanwhile took the lead with eight points. They didn’t let this take them away until the end.
