Bayern Survives Hapoel's Late Surge to Begin Gavel Era with Narrow Victory (84-86)

Anton Gavel couldn't have asked for a tighter debut. Bayern defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv 84-86 at Arena 8888 in Sofia in a game they led by eighteen points, nearly lost, and decided with a three-pointer from Johannes Voigtmann and a steal by Tobias Jensen in the final seconds.

box score

Obst decides the first half

The star of the opening was Andreas Obst. The German shooting guard scored 17 points before halftime and was the architect of a 10-0 run that turned the scoreboard around (31-34) and took his team into the break with a five-point lead (39-44).

And Bayern pulls away

The third quarter maintained the trend. The German lead reached ten points at the 26-minute mark (51-61) and fifteen at 28, with contributions from Austin Wiley and Justinian Jessup, who by that point had accumulated 11 points.

The final period started even worse for the Israelis: a 7-0 run extended the lead to eighteen points at the 32-minute mark.

The comeback that almost worked

With the game seemingly decided, Hapoel put together a 14-0 run in three minutes that completely changed the scenario (71-75 at the 35-minute mark), with Mitits scoring six consecutive points.

Then Blakeney appeared, who until that moment had been 0 for 7 from the field: two three-pointers and a layup with a free throw gave his team the lead (82-81 at the 38-minute mark).

The final two minutes

Johannes Thiemann made it 82-83 with 1:47 remaining. Elijah Bryant answered with a basket for 84-83 at 1:29. Then came the three-pointer from Johannes Voigtmann, which made it 84-86 with thirty-four seconds left.

Hapoel had two final chances: Bryant missed with sixteen seconds remaining and Vasilije Micic missed after grabbing the offensive rebound with three seconds left. On the final play, Jensen stole the ball and sealed the game.

The numbers

Obst was Bayern's leading scorer with 19 points, followed by Johannes Thiemann with 15.

For Hapoel, Dan Oturu posted a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds, and was the only home player with consistent performance throughout the game.