For the second straight week in Eurochallenge play, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners had their backs to the wall and were as desperate to win as Besiktas Istanbul fans are for an answer how the club can bow out of Eurocup play with an Allen Iverson on board and why the NBA legend wants to depart, for the Gloris Giants Duesseldorf starting a new long winning streak in the BEKO BBL so Murat Didin can go into 2011 with a new motivation and The Giessen 46ers getting back to their winning ways since suffering a seven game losing streak so the mascot son Fabi of Fabius will not be more apt to be scared away by the more increasingly angry fans with the more loses that arise. However, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners had more stress than just their backs to the wall as they entered a meaningless game, because Maccabi Haifa had been unable to beat BK Ventspils losing 99-62 thus dashing the hopes of Frankfurt of being able to advance, because BK Ventspils had to win the game. Frankfurt won a hard fought physical game against BC Khimik Yuzhny 72-60, but had mixed emotions at the end. “The whole outcome is a real disappointment. We didn´t know the result of Macabbi Haifa going into the game. We went into the game wanting to win. We fought very hard and got incredible support by the fans. We had a lot of misfortune losing two games by one point. If only I would of made my free throws. It was a great experience for me and the team and its too bad that our travel had to end like this in the Eurochallenge”, stressed Skyliner center Marius Nolte.

“I had no idea what the Maccabi Haifa score was. I have no idea why they lost like that but they did what they had to do. We had the ball in our hands to win, but didn´t. Frankfurt did what they had to do to win. It was a tough loss. We played a good first half, but didn’t execute in the second half. We did too much one on on eplay. At times it looked like street ball. We were not focused for 40 minutes”, stressed Los Angeles native Curtis Millage. “I sort of knew what happened in the Maccabi Haifa game. When I am on the court, I always want to win no matter the circumstance. I am disappointed that we didn’t advance. We didn’t have our complete team, but we competed in each game. We let one or two games slip away which cost us advancing”, stressed Skyliner guard Dashaun Wood.

It was difficult not noticing a big man in the stands taking photo after photo of BC Khimik Yuzhny 26 year old forward Travis Garrison. The man with the big lens was David Burgin who was the assistant coach at Dematha high school in Maryland where Travis Garrison went to school. Burgin is living in Frankfurt and working at the American Consulate and didn’t waste any time coming to the game to see his ex player. He has seen a steady development in his game since high school where Garrison averaged 17,0ppg and 13,0rpg. “In high school he played the three/four position, but at Maryland(NCAA) played more the four/five position and did well. At BC Khimik Yuzhny he is playing his natural position again which he played in high school. His short range jumper and three pointer have improved. His inside game is solid, but he can improve on his penetration and ball handling. He has a good work ethic and I feel that if he could get a chance could do well at a higher level”, stated ex Dematha assistant coach David Burgin. This season, Garrison is averaging 10,8ppg, 6,7rpg and 1,3 apg in the Ukraine-Superleague and seems to be fully adjusted in his second season there. “It is a tough league, but I enjoy playing there. It is a good basketball level there”, said Travis Garrison. The play of Garrison also was noticed by Skyliner players. “Garrison played very hard. He has a good mid range jumper and it was a real challenge against him on the boards. He was tough to box out”, commented Skyliner forward Kimmo Muurinen. “His mid range jumper was very strong and did a good job getting and hitting the open shots out of the pick and roll”, stressed Dashaun Wood. “Travis is a great shooter and rebounder, but most importantly communicates a lot to player”, expressed BC Khimik Yuzhny American Curtis Millage. Both Burgin and Garrison have their own favourite moments working with each other in high school. “My nicest memory with David Burgin was winning two league titles back to back”, said Washington DC native Travis Garrison. “My fondest memory of Travis was just how hard he worked during the summers to get better”, said American David Burgin.

With the days to Christmas getting shorter and shorter and the snow getting higher and higher, it was no real surprise that the Ballsporthalle would be fairly empty as only 820 people wanted to the last Eurochallenge home game of the 2010-2011 season. Dominik Bahiense De Mello might have given The Deutsche Bank Skyliners the early 3-2 lead with a jumper, but it was the Ukrainian team that would jump on Frankfurt after that going on a 10-0 run to lead 12-3. BC Khimik Yuzhny was playing very smart getting production from inside and out. Oleksandr Kolchenko and Sergiy Popov hit back to back three pointers and 213cm center Stanislav Zavadskyi scored inside on the transition and 2006 Toronto Raptors NBA draft Pick Edin Bavcic scored over Dashaun Wood as Marius Nolte was late coming back on transition defense. Frankfurt was a bit lax on defense and suffering too many turnovers early. What Frankfurt needed was a spark plug to help them crawl out of this hole and whom better than American Dashaun Wood who can be a one man wreaking crew at times. Wood drew two fouls and then hit two pull up jumpers and Jimmy Mckinney hit a jumper as Frankfurt trailed only 15-13. Ex Oldenburg guard Nemanja Protic and Joe Dabbert swapped free throws as . BC Khimik Yuzhny led 18-15 after one quarter. “Frankfurt started very slow, but came back. . BC Khimik Yuzhny was doing a good job going inside and were playing good defense”, stressed ex Dematha high school assistant coach David Burgin. . BC Khimik Yuzhny was shooting 41% from the field and 33,3% from outside while The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were shooting 26% from the field and 40% from outside. Frankfurt had the 12-9 rebound edge, but six turnovers while . BC Khimik Yuzhny had four turnovers.

. BC Khimik Yuzhny continued to have the upper hand in the second quarter as they kept their lead, but The Deutsche Bank Skyliners stayed on their heels like Tom does to Jerry the cat, but never really catching him. In the opening minutes, it was American Travis Garrison who was showcasing his mid range jumper hitting two consecutive shots as . BC Khimik Yuzhny led 22-19. However it was Wood who always remained dangerous not letting the opponent know if he will penetrate and finish or stop and shoot which h did bringing Frankfurt back to 22-21. Whenever it seemed like a turning point moment was in the script for this game, there was always a Frankfurt answer not letting . BC Khimik Yuzhny run away with the lead. With . BC Khimik Yuzhny leading 25-23, Travis Garrison hit four free throws as Frankfurt was hit with a technical foul. With Frankfurt trailing29-23, skyliner coach Gordon Herbert finally inserted Quantez Robertson into the game who seemed to have been forgotten. Super Tez responded with a lay in from the wing after getting fed nicely from Mckinney. Kolchenko then scored a floater over Muurinen as BC Khimik Yuzhny led 31-25. After Mckinney and Millage made free throws, . BC Khimik Yuzhny still led 32-27. However Frankfurt then made the prettiest transition hoop of the game as Dabbert saved the ball on the wing in front of the BC  Khimik Yuzhny bench sending the ball to Wood who gave the perfect pass to Robertson who finished with a two handed slam dunk as Frankfurt trailed 32-31.

Popov then nailed a three pointer as . BC Khimik Yuzhny led 35-31. With less than a minute Frankfurt went on a lightening mini 4-0 run to tie the score at 35-35. Joe Dabbertmade a running lay up with hard contact and Wood made a steal and went coast to coast. . BC Khimik Yuzhny had 16 seconds left to get off one more shot and went into halftime with the 38-35 lead as Millage drooped a buzzer beater bomb. For the 29 year old American Guard from Los Angeles who played at Arizona State from 2001-2003 coming back to Germany, and seeing Pascal Roller was a nice feeling, but not being home for Christmas wasn’t a great feeling. “Germany is like home. I remember playing for Wurzberg. They had great fans there. It was great playing against Pascal Roller again. He is still doing all the important little things. He is always one step ahead of you. I wish I could be home for Christmas, but I have four games in six days, so I will have no real Christmas this year”, joked Curtis Millage. “BC Khimik Yuzhny kept the lead, but too many turnovers and fast break points didn’t allow them to break open the game”, stressed David Burgin. BC Khimik Yuzhny was shooting 38% form the field and 33% from three point land while The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were shooting 36% from the field and 25% from the three point line. Frankfurt had the slim 20-18 rebound edge and had seven turnovers while BC Khimik Yuzhny had eight turnovers.

BC Khimik Yuzhny had the hotter start in the third quarter cruising out on a 7-3 run to lead 45-38. Zavadskyi scored inside easily after hauling down a lob pass from Popov, Garrison nailed a jumper over Tez and Millage hit another three pointer. Frankfurt kept fighting and not letting BC Khimik Yuzhny run away with the lead as Kimmo Muurinen hit a three pointer as Frankfurt trailed only 47-43. It was only a matter of time before Frankfurt would break out and they did going on a 8-2 run to retake the lead again since the 3-2 mark in the first quarter to lead 51-50. Mckinney started the run with a transition three pointer and Marius Nolte made two free throws. Dashaun Wood them made the show time play of the game going past three opponents and scoring with  a lay in. Wood is the basketball version of FC Barcelona soccer god Lionel Messi. De Mello then made two free throws as Frankfurt led 51-49. However it wasn´t The Deutsche Bank Skyliners that led after 30 minutes, but still BC Khimik Yuzhny as they closed out the third quarter with a 5-2 run to lead 54-53. American Chris Howard and Bavcic only made one of two free throws  to tie the game at 51-51. Howard them nailed a three pointer for the 54-51 lead. Wood made the last basket of the third quarter zooming past Howard and lay the ball in as Bavcic just watched. BC Khimik Yuzhny led 54-53 after three quarters. “Both teams were trading baskets. No team was able to get away from the other team. After kicking us around in the first half, we played a lot harder in the third quarter”, said Kimmo Muurinen. BC Khimik Yuzhny was shooting 42% from the field and 35% from the parking lot while Frankfurt was shooting 40% from the field and 33% from the parking lot. Frankfurt was leading the rebound battle 27-24 and had 10 turnovers while BC Khimik Yuzhny had 11 turnovers.

The Deutsche Bank Skyliners totally dominated the fourth quarter outscoring BC Khimik Yuzhny 19-6 and totally letting their offensive arsenal get the best of the opponent and stepping up their defense. After Jermaine Bucknor and Curtis Millage exchanged baskets, The Deutsche Bank Skyliners went on a 12-0 run to lead 68-57 and ultimately seal the win. Frankfurt continued to draw fouls as Dabbert and Bucknor got to the free throw line as Frankfurt retook the lead 59-57 and would never look back. Jimmy Mckinney can shoot out the lights in any arena all day long the same way that Mariah Carey can wail her hits all day long in a breathtaking voice and the St Louis native showed why Frankfurt isn’t about to give him away as he nailed two consecutive three pointers breaking the necks of BC Khimik Yuzhny. Robertson then scored as Frankfurt led 68-57. One player who has been struggling for weeks, but had his break out game was American Joe Dabbert. He missed some easy shots at the start, but always got better into the game especially on defense where he had three steals, one block and only one foul. In the fourth quarter, he was the key force on defense that allowed Frankfurt to go on the run to win. “Joe and I are not opponents. He has had tough weeks and was in a hole. We have tried to help him by talking to him. He was so important tonight. When he is rebounding well, we are really strong. He carried us tonight. I am very happy that he had a good game. I hope that his good play will continue in the next weeks”, warned Skyliner center Marius Nolte. The game finished with a few free throws as The Deutsche Bank Skyliners won their ninth game in a row in the Ballsporthalle. “our intensity, fight and good defense was key for us winning the game in the fourth quarter”, stated ex Utah Jazz Roger Powell. “Frankfurt is a very good team that play together. they rebounded very well and played a bit harder than we did”, stressed Travis Garrison. “We had problems getting into the game. But all in all we played good defense and worked hard to control the rebounds. We shot very well from the free throw line and finished the game strong allowing only six points in the fourth quarter”, stressed Marius Nolte.

The Deutsche Bank Skyliners were led by Dashaun Wood with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds. Jimmy Mckinney added 16 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals. Kimmo Muurinen chipped in with 10 points and four rebounds. BC Khimik Yuzhny was led by Travis Garrison with 12 points and six rebounds. Oleksandr Kolchenko added10 points, four rebounds and two assists. The Deutsche Bank Skyliners had to be on top of their game against TBB Trier and showed the same kind of fight against BC Khimik Yuzhny. “we played with  a lot of toughness like in the last game. We were able to match their intensity early which helped us throughout the game”, said Dashaun Wood. Even though Frankfurt was unable to advance to the next round of the Eurochallenge, it will be a moment that they will not easily forget. “We gave everything we had. I think we might have been missing some extra experience in some games, but I think that this Eurochallenge experience will help us in the BEKO BBL”, warned Skyliner captain Pascal Roller. The Deutsche Bank Skyliners host BBC Bayreuth on December 26^th at 17:00.