With the current Fraport Skyliner losing streak at 10 games and 52 days since the Justin Gray buzzer beater win against Wurzburg and growing rapidly and at a seemingly uncontrollable rate like beautiful morning glories that start to vine quicker than Kobe Bryant can fall asleep after a five hour workout, the beard of Skyliner Johannes Herber that has taken considerable form in the last months, the losing streaks in the past of 26 games of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Cavaliers or the sunglasses collection of society girl Paris Hilton, the club continued to be in desperate need of getting that monkey of their back and finally getting back on the win column again and finally showing a team effort for 40 minutes and wining 83-65. With so much pain during this losing streak suffered, The Fraport Skyliners would have welcomed any kind of help even if indirect like just the presence of ex Skyliner Bernd Kruel who won the 2004 Beko BBL title and played 13 Euroleague games for the Skyliners giving his ex team some aura of past success and let it rub off the team. Even after the loss, Kruel was his usual friendly self, but didn´t even have his ex team in his thoughts as much anymore. “I really don´t have any special feeling for my old team. It has been a while since I played for them. There is no one left on the team from when I played there. Maybe some of my past Skyliner success rubbed of them tonight”, commented Bernd Kruel.

It may only be December 2011, but the fans in the Enervie arena in Hagen saw two teams that are already fighting to get out of the Beko BBL cellar. Phoenix Hagen guard Brandon Brooks had a long face after the loss which was the fourth game in a row that they were unable to gain a victory while the Fraport Skyliners had gone 52 days without a win and seeing the relief in the faces and voices of the players after the final siren sounded were enriching. Skyliner captain Marius Nolte was as emotional after the win as if he had become a dad at the same time. “I am a little disarranged now, but this feeling of finally getting the win is amazing. You could the relief on the faces of the players when the game was over. We played our game today being calm on offense, creating good shots, Leuer making quick decisions on offense, our defense continues to get better in the last weeks, we were consistent for a very long stretch and we just wanted to win so bad tonight”, stressed Skyliner center Marius Nolte. Phoenix Hagen never really had a chance as the Fraport Skyliners clearly showed them who was boss in their living room. “This was a game that both teams needed to win very badly, but Frankfurt were the more aggressive team and wanted to win more”, added Phoenix Hagen center Eddie Seward.

3,121 fans came into the Enervie arena see The Fraport Skyliners continue to start well into games as they had done last weekend at home against TBB Trier. Before the thunderbird mascot had been able to clean its feathers quickly, The Fraport Skyliners had quickly jumped out to a 9-4 lead. Quantez Robertson who came into the game shooting 15,4% from down town hit the first three pointer of the game which had to be a good omen. Jimmy Mckinney and Jermareo Davidson followed with jumpers while Marc Carter hit two difficult contested shots. Phoenix Hagen quickly got an early taste of how the game style would be. Robertson followed with an athletic coast to coast sprint finishing with a hard left handed slam dunk over Zygimantas Jonusas. Jon Leuer nailed a three pointer and Robertson added a jumper while Phoenix Hagen got needed production from Brandon Brooks with a three pointer and a Jordan Hasquet runner. Frankfurt had started off the game hot and their self confidence grew right away. They quickly dominated on the boards especially getting timely offensive rebounds and their help defense quickly took shape. “It was no surprise how we started since we have had good starts like this the last weeks. We controlled the rebounds and didn´t let them get out on transition”, stressed Skyliner sport director Kamil Novak. The Fraport Skyliners were shooting 43% from the field and 50% from outside while Phoenix Hagen was shooting 29% from the field and 25% from outside. Frankfurt dominated the rebounds 12-6,  but had seven turnovers while Phoenix Hagen had only three turnovers.

In the second quarter, The Fraport Skyliner offense slowly got rolling as more of a fluid was created and the ball was being turned over less. Frankfurt quickly had the 22-13 lead getting a Tim Ohlbrecht dunk, Jon Leuer jumper and Michael Thompson three pointer. The Frankfurt defense continued to be aggressive not allowing Phoenix Hagen any easy points inside and more to desperation shots from outside and continued to stop any transition attempts. The Frankfurt offense continued to grow as Thompson made a sweet Juicy floater and Jon Leuer hit three shots in a row to give Frankfurt the 34-22 lead. Leuer who has a resemblance to movie character Ferris Bueller also showed basketball mischieveness on the court not just pulling out his predictable jumper, but doing more damage inside as he made a dunk and reverse lay up. Young German Dominik Spohr gave Phoenix Hagen some precious support from the bench nailing two big jumpers not allowing Frankfurt to totally run away early with the game. Thompson ended the second quarter with another floater as The Fraport Skyliners had the comfortable 39-24 lead. Frankfurt had many guys that were hitting shots, continued to defend as if their life depended on it and forced Phoenix Hagen to more one on one situations. “Frankfurt had almost double as much rebounds as us and just crashed the boards well and executed on offense hitting tough shots”, added Eddie Seward. The Fraport Skyliners were shooting 50% from the field and 44% from the three point line while Phoenix Hagen was shooting 31% from the field and 18% from the three point line. Frankfurt dominated the boards 25-13, but had eight turnovers while Phoenix Hagen only had five turnovers.

No basketball is the same without some kind of run and Phoenix Hagen caught The Fraport Skyliners off guard at the start of the third quarter quickly cruising out on a 9-2 run and stepping up the intensity of their defense cutting the Frankfurt lead to 41-33. Canadian Tristan Blackwood scored inside, Marc Carter hit a three pointer and Brandon Brooks scored two typical shots in traffic in the zone. However that was as close as Phoenix Hagen would get to cutting the Frankfurt lead. Frankfurt got their offense going again as Mckinney hit three shots in a row. This was a stretch where neither team could get many stops, but kept scoring consistently as Frankfurt led 50-40. Jordan Hasquet made a runner in traffic and Brooks made another jumper keeping Phoenix Hagen at bay as Frankfurt still led 53-44. Frankfurt also did a fine job drawing fouls as Nolte and Leuer got to the free throw line. New Hagen player Adam Constantine who had missed two easy buckets got revenge scoring on a nifty no look pass from Brooks as the third quarter ended with the Fraport Skyliners still sitting in the drivers seat leading 56-46. “We made a nice run in the third, but we were in the hole and it took a lot of energy to come back. Frankfurt had more energy and took off”, stressed Eddie Seward. The Fraport Skyliners were shooting 51% from the field and 50% from the parking lot while Phoenix Hagen was shooting 40% from the field and 25% from the parking lot. Frankfurt continued to lead the rebounding battle 33-21. Frankfurt had 12 turnovers while Phoenix Hagen continued to do a splendid job taking care of the ball with only five turnovers.

In the fourth quarter, Phoenix Hagen continued to crawl up the backs of The Fraport Skyliners, but could never reach the top as they continued to hover being behind by 10 points. Phoenix Hagen got some timely production from Constantine and Jonusas cutting the Frankfurt lead to 61-51. After Carter and Leuer exchanged free throws, Brooks made another one of his typical off balance shots in the zone as the Frankfurt continued to lead 65-55. Phoenix Hagen was unable to go on a timely run in crunch time, but moreover it was The Fraport Skyliners who broke the tired backs of Phoenix Hagen going on a 12-4 run to lead 78-59 and valuable time on the clock dwindling. In the run, it was Mckinney who hit two pull up jumpers and two free throws while Leuer nailed a three pointer, made a dunk and lay in. With only a few minutes to play, Frankfurt had a relaxing 78-59 lead. Frankfurt had had simply too many options on offense and when a Mckinney and Leuer get going, then you can say an early good night at 8:30 in the evening. Thompson followed with another three pointer and Mckinney added another pull up jumper as The Fraport Skyliners celebrated a more than deserved 83-65 win on the road which was their third win in a row in Hagen. “We saw that Frankfurt was not a 17^th placed team. I was hoping that Leuer was on his way to the bucks, but he hung around and killed us tonight. Frankfurt had the kind of energy that you need to have in a game like this. They just played with a lot of effort and it showed with Robertson jumping all over the place having eight rebounds at half time. Frankfurt is big and long. Even when you run the pick and roll, it is hard to score inside with their big men. On top of that when the three isn´t falling, its extra difficult to win”, stressed Phoenix Hagen assistant coach Steven Wriedt. “Our defense was key tonight. We knew that they liked to run and we did a super job controlling the tempo”, added Jon Leuer.

The Fraport Skyliners were led by Jon Leuer with 27 points and seven rebounds. Jimmy Mckinney produced 21 points. Michael Thompson added 13 points. Quantez Robertson chipped in with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Phoenix Hagen was led by Brandon Brooks with 14 points and six assists. Adam Constantine added 12 points and eight rebounds while Marc carter had 11 points. The Fraport Skyliners had a strong shooting day shooting 55% from the field and 57% from downtown. Phoenix Hagen struggled against the strong Frankfurt defense shooting only 38% from the field and 19% from downtown. “Frankfurt had very good rotations on the pick and roll and they got many rebounds which hurt us”, stressed Brandon Brooks. Some teams fall apart during stressful times, but The Fraport Skyliners never drifted away from each other, but continued to have a tight bond. “Our biggest strength today was that we fought and stayed together for every second. Juice took more responsibility and Tez gave much energy. I hope that this is a first step for further continued success”, warned Marius Nolte. The Fraport Skyliner next play Lok Kuban and are looking for their first win in Eurocup play Tuesday. “We have to continue to build on this good performance for 40 minutes and now do it night in and night out”, warned Jon Leuer.