ALBA Berlin headed to German League Finals

On Sunday, June 9th, ALBA Berlin completed their 3-game sweep of EWE Baskets Oldenburg 89-100 and have punched their ticket to the German League finals where they will face off against FC Bayern Muenchen. Both teams will square off on June 16th to contest for the 2019 Beko BBL title.

It was an impressive showing by ALBA Berlin as their balanced offense translated into having seven of their players scoring in double figures. As expected Peyton Siva led the charge with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double to pace the Berliners.

Their strong team play was more than ample to withstand an explosive game from EWE Basket’s Will Cummings, who dropped a game-high 31 points on highly efficient shooting. He connected on 9-of-16 shots from the field and was a near-perfect 10-of-11 from the free throw line. Aside from him, only Rasid Mahalbasic and Rickey Paulding cracked the double-digit scoring clip with 18 and 13 points, respectively.

3-point shooting played a big role in the outcome of this game. ALBA knocked down 14-of-29 shots from downtown, compared to just 7-of-22 from EWE Baskets. Also, a glaring stat differential can be seen in the assist category. ALBA’s unselfishness shined through in this outing as the team collected 28 assists vs. just 11 from their opponents.

ALBA was in control throughout the game, the same story as in Games 1 and 2. Both ALBA Berlin and Bayern Muenchen swept their respective semi-finals series, so we should be able to expect fireworks, come the finals. Bayern Muenchen has been dominant all season, finishing with a league-best 31-3 record at the end of the 2018-19 regular season. ALBA finished with a more-than-respectable 27-7 slate of their own.