The German side pulled off a big shock in Round 9
ALBA’s Fantastic Four showed that David can beat Goliath
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Regular Season
Round 9 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Sometimes, sport can produce the unthinkable.
On Tuesday night, ALBA Berlin was without eight first-team players heading into its Round 9 clash against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and a sixth straight defeat wasn’t just looming, it looked like a formality.
Let’s just take a look at all the players who were absent for one reason or another: Malte Delow, Yanni Wetzell, Will McDowell-White, Matt Thomas, Martin Hermannsson, Justin Bean, Louis Olinde and Khalifa Koumadje. Even before tipoff, coach Israel Gonzalez was fearing the worst.
“The most important thing right now is not to lose more players to injury,” Coach Gonzalez told EuroLeague TV. “[We will] try to compete, to play our best, and to learn from such a good team and such a good coach like Ettore [Messina]’s Milan.”
Many believed that Milan’s array of talent, including 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague MVP Nikola Mirotic, Zach LeDay, Leandro Bolmaro, Nico Mannion and Neno Dimitrijevic, were going to have a field day. And in part they did, especially in the cases of Mirotic and LeDay. But ALBA was simply expected to roll over for the reigning Italian League champion, which itself was without Josh Nebo, Shavon Shields and Ousmane Diop.
Instead, what EuroLeague fans saw was an incredible 45 minutes (the game went to overtime) worth of fighting spirit, determination and incredible resolve.
Milan had led at the end of each of the first three quarters and took an eight-point advantage (69-77) into the final frame. It looked like Goliath was set to defeat David and the home supporters' hope of a surprise result would be vanquished.
What was particularly striking through the first three quarters is that ALBA’s offense was being carried by just four players, with Gabriele Procida, Matteo Spagnolo, Jonas Mattisseck and Trevion Williams having combined for 64 of ALBA’s 69 points to that point.
Needing to outscore Milan by eight points in the fourth quarter, ALBA’s Fantastic Four made sure to step up to the plate. Together, they scored 19 fourth-quarter points – four more than Milan managed as a team – to put their side within striking distance, then it was Tim Schneider who kept his cool at the line to force overtime and tie the score at 92-92.
When Williams hit a couple of free throws at the very start of overtime, with Mirotic having fouled him on the initial tip, that gave ALBA its first lead since the first quarter and led to amazement among those present inside Mercedes-Benz Arena – and not for the first time on the night. Procida would end up appearing with 5 points in the extra period as ALBA held its nerve to come away with a stunning 105-101 victory.
“I’m proud, proud of my players. Unbelievable,” Coach Gonzalez told EuroLeague TV afterward. “To survive in this situation, the only way is to keep a good spirit, stay altogether, being positive, and today we have the reward. We have to be happy. We have to enjoy it because it is a great win tonight.”
The Fantastic Four of Procida (29 points), Spagnolo (20), Mattisseck (21) and Williams (23) all set career highs in scoring, while ALBA played three 18-year-olds on the night, with two making their EuroLeague debuts in Dorian Grosber and Amon Doerries.
In fact, Spagnolo could easily have been the ninth man to miss out on Tuesday night’s game, but he was determined to be with his teammates after not featuring in Rounds 7 and 8.
“Matteo was out for the week because of sickness, and all the other guys had a lot of bad injuries during the last few games, but the way that we played together, I think it is a very big step forward,” Procida stated. “It seems like we won the EuroLeague! We’ve got to enjoy a night like this because we played amazing.”
Procida is right about it seeming like ALBA had won the EuroLeague, but this was the impossible becoming reality. The depth of ALBA’s injury crisis made this a David versus Goliath sort of clash; fortunately for Coach Gonzalez, his Fantastic Four were able to come to the rescue.