Skyliner captain Pascal Roller is usually as reliable with his shot as Larry Bird was in crunch time, Tom Brady early in his career with unforgettable fourth quarter comebacks or Red Sox slugger David Ortiz coming through with big clutch hits in the late innings, but in the first five games of the season Roller was averaging a dismal 10% from the field and 11% from outside was about as unlucky as the couple Cairns-Lawrence who experienced the 9/11 Terrorist attacks, 2005 London bombing innocent and 2008 bombing in Mumbai, but Roller finally found his shooting touch back last weekend shooting 4/6 against Braunschweig, but had misfortune again shooting only 1/6, but it didn´t harm The Deutsche Bank Skyliners as they recieved enough production from AJ Moye, Dominik Bahiense De Mello or Brad Buckman as they took apart the Artland Dragons 82-56. Roller might be one of the few shooters on earth that can have a bad shooting day, but always be remembered for the incredible worth of his talent of making big time shots. “Pascal is just a clutch shooter. You can wake him up at 2.00 am and he will make the winning shot. He will always have his ups and downs, but when it counts he always makes the shot. I can remember with the German national team he would not have played 38 minutes and coach Dirk Bauerman just put him in for free throws”, warned ex North Carolona Tar Heel Ademola Okulaja. “Roller found his shot at an early age. He has been shooting like this since he was 15 or 16 years old. He is just a pure technical shooter, that doesn´t think, but just shoots. He could always rely on his shot even if it didn´t fall tonight”, added ex BEKO BBL player Marvin Willoughby. “We had Buckman in the first half, Moye in the second half and the leadership of Roller the whole game”, said Quantez Robertson.

One of the least worries of the Artland Dragons was Skyliner Pascal Roller, but moreover themselves in this crushing 82-56 loss. “It was the way we lost that hurt. We have  a lot of respect for Frankfurt. They always do well. They simply outworked us tonight on both ends of the floor. In the second half, they started to feel better and made their shots while we didn´t. It was like quick sand for us, as the game progressed, we kept digging a deeper hole in the grave”, stressed Artland dragon Darren Fenn. With the win, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners move to position four in the BEKO BBL standings with a record of 4-2 and the Artland Dragons stay at position five with a record of 4-3. Frankfurt has made a name for themselves as the comeback team and stayed true to their roots. “We had no rhythm in the first quarter, but we stayed in the game and came back before halftime which was the first step in us getting the win and the second step in getting the win ocured in the third quarter as we rebounded well, had  a high intensity on defense and forcing Artland to bad shots”, stressed Skyliner sports director Kamil Novak.
Last week, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners surprised everyone by signing  ex NBA player Roger Powell. Powell who played three NBA games for the Utah Jazz in 2006 and played together with Deron Williams, Luther Head and Dee Brown at Illinois had been a late cut form the Chicago Bulls and quickly hoped on a plane to Frankfurt. The name Powell was on the lips of many in the arena and in the thoughts of the Artland Dragons. “Powell is a good guy that works hard. I saw him at Illinois. He was more of a position four in school. He has learned to shoot and can play the position three now, but I suspect he will play four with Frankfurt”, stressed Artland Dragons assistant coach Tyrone Mccoy. Jordan finished with four points and three rebounds in 13 minutes and had a smile on his face after the game, so his BEKO BBL debut can´t have been that bad. “I feel good. The German league is different from the NBA, but its good basketball. Frankfurt is a very good team and our chances to win games will always be good”, stressed Roger Powell. Darren Fenn got first hand of what a Powell flight to the hoop looks like as Powell made the play of the game with his dunk. “It is always tough to come off a plane and get thrown into the game, but he is very solid”, warned Darren Fenn. Powell made a thunderous dunk in the third quarter as he flew over Marius Nolte Ruben Boumtje Boumtje and Darren Fenn. “I was a bit lethargic in the first half with my jet lag, so in the second half, I wanted to make a point with that dunk. I would rate it a 8. I like being aggressive and getting to the basket and I simply like to dunk”, stressed Roger Powell. Skyliner big man Brad Buckman has to worry more about his own situation concerning his short term contract and if he will be renewed, but he had nothing but praise for the ordained minister Powell. “Powell will adjust well and get his points. He is a great guy and big bonus for this club. It looked like he would not make it to the rim on the dunk, but then BOOM, his tomahawk revved our engine and got us going”, commented University of Texas alumnist Brad Buckman. “We couldn´t await to much from Powell, but he had a good start. He had a spectacular dunk and helped the team win. We will have to get him worked more into the systems in the next days”, warned Kamil Novak.
Frankfurt was without Jermaine Bucknor and Jimmy Mckinney while The Artland Dragons were missing Nathan Peavy and Florian Hartenstein. In the last five games, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners had only won one game in five attempts in the Artland arena with a win in OT in 2008. Three of the four games had been blowouts and usually had been started with lightening starts by the Artland Dragons. Frankfurt knew that they could not afford a slow start, but they were unable to match the early intensity of Artland as they rushed out to a 7-0 lead in the first few minutes. The Artland Dragon got quick transition buckets early and got inside as well as Darren Fenn, Bryan Bailey and Ibekwe scored. After a AJ Moye fade away jumper, it was the always dangerous Adam Hess that sunk a three pointer for the 10-2 lead. Frankfurt began to fight back early as Brad Buckman who is fighting to stay in Frankfurt scored twice inside over Darren Fenn. “I did what I had to do tonight. I wanted to play more, but overextended my lower ab”, said Brad Buckman. After Fenn scored over Buckman, it was Moye scoring inside after getting a nice lob pass from Buckman. Frankfurt trailed only 12-8. However, Frankfurt lost a bit of concentration letting Artland go on a 6-0 run their second of the game. Frankfurt was unable to slow down the Dragons transition game as they got easy baskets inside from Ibekwe twice and once from Bailey. After one quarter, The Artland Dragons were leading 18-12. “Frankfurt was looking for their rhythm and Artland did a good job on transition. After the 6-0 Artland run, Frankfurt did a fine job with their zone defense bring Artland a bit out of their rhythm”, stated ex German national player Marvin Willoughby. After one quarter, The Artland Dragons were shooting 50% from the field and 20% from outside while The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were shooting 33% from the field and 0% from outside. Frankfurt had the slight 9-7 rebounding edge, but already six turnovers, while the Dragons had only three turnovers.
In the second quarter, The Artland Dragons continued to lead, but could never really breakaway as The Deutsche Bank Skyliners kept chipping away at the Dragons lead and always staying in striking range. Fenn scored with a hook shot over Joe Dabbert and hit a three pointer which was met by a Dashaun Wood bomb form the corner as Frankfurt trailed 23-17. Frankfurt then sustained a 6-0 run as Boumtje Boumtje scored inside twice and Tyrese Rice hit a pull up jumper on a fast break as The Artland Dragons were leading 29-19. Buckman then grabbed an offensive board and put back and Quantez Robertson who lead the club in rebounds with 10 scored inside as Frankfurt trailed only 30-23. Frankfurt was hanging in the game and getting support from many players and might not have needed a one man spark plug, but got in anyway from six year man Dominik Bahiense De Mello. After a Alexander Seggelke lay in and Buckman free throw, Frankfurt trailed 32-24. De Mello then commenced his rampage dropping a three pointer and scoring inside getting past Hess as Frankfurt trailed 32-29. “Bailey defended me very tough, but I used my chance today to perform”, stated De Mello. De Mello the got some support from fellow German Marius Nolte that made an unexpected, but well deserved quick move around Fenn as Frankfurt trailed 34-31. Artland got to the line with Fenn and Bailey, but the De Mello magic was not over yet as he scored on a drive from the wing and made  a free throw. Robertson ended the second quarter with a free throw as the Artland Dragons were leading only 36-35. “Frankfurt had more rhythm, were making better decisions, less small mistakes and had a confident De Mello while Artland was missing too many shots and were not playing transition basketball”, stated Marvin Willoughby. “We lost concentration in the last five minutes and focus on defense”, commented Darren Fenn. The Artland Dragons were shooting 46% from the field and 22% from the three point line as The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were shooting 42% from the  field and 22% from the three point line. Frankfurt had the overwhelming 23-12 rebound edge and didn´t give up an offensive rebound. Frankfurt had nine turnovers and Artland only four.

The Artland Dragons couldn´t rebound from the poor ending of the second quarter and were unable to take the Stefan Koch advice in halftime and translate it to success on the court as The Deutsche Bank Skyliners stormed out on a 8-0 run to lead 43-36. Frankfurt started the quarter with a beautiful play as De mello found Moye open underneath with a bounce pass that was wrapped into the basket with a reverse lay up. The ice man Kimmo Muurinen then hit a three pointer from the top of the key and then muscled home  a tip in. Ex Boston College star Tyrese Rice would keep the Dragons in the game with a floater and lay up, but Frankfurt stayed consistent on offense as Joe Dabbert scored twice inside. Frankfurt led 45-40, but kept getting stronger and let go on offense going on a 10-0 run to lead 55-40 which ultimately broke the necks of The Artland Dragons. In this crucial run, Frankfurt got confident which grew and grew from the Dabbert dunk which was followed by a Moye three pointer on the fast break, a Wood floater and then the DUNK by Roger Powell as Frankfurt was up by 15 points. Powell came from the free throw line found some daylight and just took flight like a goose does jetting off to Florida for the winter. “The dunk was a big play by Powell. This put the final stamp on Artland which led us to winning the game”, stressed Dashaun Wood. Rice scored inside again showing that penetrating is his game and De Mello ended the third quarter with another three pointer from the parking lot as Frankfurt led 59-44 after three quarters. “Frankfurt got control of the game in the third quarter. Their defense was strong letting up only eight points and they just wanted to win more while Artland seemed to not really know what they wanted”, stated Marvin Willoughby. “We came out flat in the third quarter and Frankfurt took advantage of it”, expressed Darren Fenn. The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were shooting 47% from the field and 36% from the parking lot while The Artland Dragons were shooting 42% from the field and 15% from the parking lot. Frankfurt had the huge rebound edge 33-18 and both teams had ten turnovers. Frankfurt had forced Artland to six turnovers in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners continued to play strong on offense and defense winning the quarter 23-12. Frankfurt started the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run to take a 65-44 lead as Moye scored with a mid distance jumper and floater and Powell with a lay in. The Frankfurt offense was working like a fine tuned Swiss clock work while the Artland arena was getting quieter and quieter as if a funeral was about to take place. Not even tobi the dragon could help the team a she was pacing up and down the court like he had seen his last flame. Muurinen and Roller nailed jumpers as Frankfurt led 70-46. The Artland Dragons had little ideas on offense and just kept firing away from outside as here and there a three pointer was made as Seggelke cut the Frankfurt lead to 70-49. Moye remained hot in the fourth quarter as he made a mid distance jumper and three pointer and Roller a jumper as Frankfurt led 79-53. Artland did get better on the boards in the fourth quarter and were able to improve their rebounding stats a bit from very bad to just plain bad. “You could see that Frankfurt was very disciplined. I played for Herbert at Wurzburg and he was the best coach that I ever played for. It is so obvious that players listen to him”, stressed ex Wurzburg player Marvin Willoughby. Nolte and Hess closed out the game with free throws as Frankfurt left the Artland arena with a well deserved victory. “Frankfurt did a good job getting to the offensive glass. We couldn´t stop them on defense. They shot the ball very well in the second half. They took us out of things on offense and we couldn´t adjust”, stressed Darren Fenn. “This was a great team effort. We talked and came together picked our heads up and just thought from play to play. De Mello did more than his job. He is a great player and read the offense. He was a big factor why we won tonight”, said Brad Buckman.
The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were led by AJ Moye with 18 points and six rebounds, Dominik Bahiense De Mello added 12 points and Brad Buckman chipped in with 11 points and six rebounds in 11 minutes. The Artland Dragons were led by Darren Fenn with 13 points and seven rebound s and Tyrese Rice added 10 points and six assists.
The Deutsche Bank Skyliners shot 48% form the field and 37% from outside while The Artland Dragons shot 36% from the field and a miserable 15% from outside. Frankfurt once again showed why they belong to the top rebounding clubs in the BEKO BBL winning the duel 43-31 and the points in the paint 40-30. Frankfurt did  a great job not letting Ebekwe and Boumtje Boumtje to dominate limiting the duo to 11 points and three rebounds combined in 35 minutes. “Frankfurt was packing the lane and weren´t opening it up. We weren´t hitting our three pointers which really made it difficult for our big men to do anything”, stressed Darren Fenn. The rebounding was a Frankfurt strong point as was the team play but also the fact that not having Wood and Roller score much be an issue as they combined for 12 points. “Me and Pascal take what the defense gives us. In the third and fourth quarter, Artland was playing a triangle which left Moye open and denied me the ball. So we let Moye shoot. Also Pascal and I are not one dimensional point guards. Some games, we lead and pass and other games we shoot more. Tonight our role was to talk on offense and defense and keep team organized”, said Dashaun Wood. BG Goettingen host The Deutsche Bank Skyliners on November 3rd.