The Niners Chemnitz have celebrated the greatest success in their club's history and won the FIBA Europe Cup. The German basketball club lost the second leg of the final at Bahcesehir College by 95:105 (38:55) after overtime on Wednesday, but had prevailed 85:74 in the first leg last week. This eleven-point cushion was enough for Chemnitz to win the title. Kaza Kajami-Keane led the Saxons with 29 points.
The Chemnitz club is the sixth German team to win a European Cup after Alba Berlin (1993), the Syntainics MBC from Weißenfels (2004), BG Göttingen (2010), the Fraport Skyliners from Frankfurt (2016) and Telekom Baskets Bonn (2023). The FIBA Europe Cup is currently the weakest of the four European basketball competitions.
Chemnitz led 19:18 after the first quarter, but lost its rhythm in the course of the second half. Bahcesehir, on the other hand, now hit its threes and produced an 18:4 run to pull 55:38 ahead at the break. The visitors conceded 37 points in the second half.
After the break, Chemnitz was better in defense with a zone defense. Kaza Kajami-Keane also turned on the heat in offense. The playmaker scored 14 points in the third period and tied the scores at 67:67. The visitors dominated the third quarter by 29:12, but the Niners had to keep chipping away in the fourth period and the home side took a 95:84 lead with eight seconds remaining. After Chemnitz's eleven-point victory in the first leg, the game thus went into overtime.
The visitors had to do without the fourth player of their big guard, who was not allowed to continue with five fouls. Nevertheless, Chemnitz managed to prevent the deficit from growing to more than ten points. In the final attack of the game, Bahcesehir missed a three-pointer that would have clinched the title for the Turks.
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