After the record cup victory, the basketball pros from Alba Berlin jumped around in the golden rain of confetti.

With a 86:76 (39:43) in the final in their own hall against the Hakro Merlins Crailsheim, the German champions won the national cup for the eleventh time on Sunday.

No club in Germany has won the cup competition so often.

So far, Alba had had to share the record with Bayer Leverkusen.

"It's an unbelievable euphoria.

That's incredibly awesome.

But it was incredibly tough," said Berlin international Johannes Thiemann after the final at Internet provider Magenta Sport.

The best thrower for the Berliners was national player Maodo Lo with 20 points, who was also voted the most valuable player after the game.

“Winning a title is always something special.

It feels good," Lo said.

In the strong Merlins, TJ Shorts scored a strong 30 points.

"It hurts," said the American.

"We came here to win the title.

But this is not a setback.

I'm super proud of the boys.

We will come back."

In the semifinals on Saturday, Alba beat Niners Chemnitz 91:81, Crailsheim defeated Basketball Löwen Braunschweig 85:71.

The support from the NBA star and sole shareholder Dennis Schröder from the stands didn't help the Braunschweigers either.

Defending champions Bayern Munich failed in the quarter-finals because of Chemnitz.

Just 18 hours after the semifinals

A week earlier, Alba had clearly defeated the Merlins in the league with 106:74.

But the capitals knew that it would not be so easy this time.

As in the semi-final against Chemnitz, the Berliners found it difficult to get into the encounter and were always trailing behind before the break.

Lo had already pointed out the extremely short break for the Berliners between the two games of less than 18 hours on Saturday evening.

And indeed, Alba seemed a bit tired at first.

The Merlins took advantage of this with fast basketball and even led by 16 points (37:21) in the middle of the second quarter.

TJ Shorts in particular could hardly be stopped by the Berliners and already had 17 points to his credit at half-time.

As against Chemnitz, Alba was not deterred by the clear deficit.

Led by Lo, the big favorite caught up point by point and was only four points behind after 20 minutes (39:43).

After the change of sides, the momentum tilted further in the direction of the German champions.

Crailsheim's star TJ Shorts was forced to spend more time on the bench than planned after three fouls.

Alba took advantage of this and took the lead for the first time (53:52) with a three by Jaleen Smith.

Although the Merlins continued to fight against the impending defeat with all their might at their final premiere, the Berliners pulled away for the first time thanks to two successful three-pointers by Jonas Mattisseck.

The Merlins were now running out of steam, but TJ Shorts brought them back to three points (79:76).

But then Lo sunk an ice-cold three and made the next Berlin title perfect.