ALBA outmuscled Zvezda and won the battle under the boards to beat a more heralded rival.
Strong defense and Matt Thomas’s shooting lifted ALBA Berlin past Zvezda
Article
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 23 of 34
Group Regular Season
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ALBA Berlin delighted its fans with an impressive 89-80 home win over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, improving to 5-18 while the visitors dropped to 9-14 and dented their hoped of reaching the playoffs.
Zvezda’s inconsistency once again came back to haunt the Serbian team, as ALBA dominated the boards and dished out 10 assists more (19-9) than its rival. The home side’s rugged approach allowed it to carve out a 70-48 lead late in the third quarter, on the back of rock solid defending and decent shooting from open looks.
Matt Thomas finished on a EuroLeague career high of 19 points and Gabriele Procida added 17, with ALBA winning the battle in the paint as it racked up 42 rebounds to Zvezda’s 35. Yanni Wetzell was instrumental in that department, having collected 9 boards to go with 11 points.
“We were rebounding and getting out of transition, we moved the ball really well and played hard-paced basketball,” Wetzell said after the game. “Rebounding was the emphasis that we talked about in the last two days and we were able to facilitate our transition today thanks to controlling the boards. I am in a good moment right now, feeling confident and getting some great opportunities."
Thomas credited his fine performance with Martin Hermannsson’s calm and collected display, as the Icelandic playmaker facilitated the offense with 7 points and 5 assists, most of them giving Thomas time and space to deliver from the perimeter.
Hermannsson returned to ALBA earlier this month from Valencia after undergoing knee surgery twice following ligament damage in 2022. Against Zvezda, he made a telling impact after coming off the bench to pull the strings on the offensive end.
“All the work we’ve been putting in all season is now showing as we’ve started to play better basketball,” Thomas commented. “Getting Martin Hermannsson back has helped a lot because he is a point guard who knows what he’s doing out there. I am a guy who plays off the ball and those shots I made tonight came off Martin’s assists, I am happy that he’s here. It’s been a tough up-and-down year but we’re improving, slowly but surely,” he added.
Game Videos
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The home team’s coach Israel Gonazlez also pointed to rebounding as the key to subduing Zvezda. “We won the boards against such a good rebounding team and that was so important defensively because everything starts with defense,” he said. “If we defend well, we give ourselves a better chance of playing good offense.”
His counterpart Ioannis Sfairopoulos lamented over the all too familiar script of Zvezda perennially giving itself a mountain to climb and coming up short in late fightbacks.
“They outscored us 33-20 in the second quarter and that was the key,” he said. “We fought back in the fourth quarter and had an open shot after we slashed the deficit to 5 points, but it’s not enough to win an away game.”