The OPEL SKYLINERS lead the best of five series against Alba Berlin 1 to 0, after the sensational victory on Sunday in Berlin 80 to 63. The win was made easier with the extaordinary performance by the Bermuda triangle of American Chris Williams, American Tyrone Ellis and captain Pascal Roller, who scored 64 of the 80 points. It is wonderful when Frankfurt can rely on them to win games, but the OPEL SKYLINERS know that other players will have to step up, if the Bermuda triangle is not functioning. However, American Tyrone Ellis thinks that it depends on the game how the minutes are divded up.
"It really depends on the game flow how many minutes a player plays. Pascal, Chris and I played a lot, but they were productive minutes.Every game is different, but if we are productive, than we will play a lot." Only two other players, Malick Badiane and Jukka Matinen scored the other 16 points for Frankfurt in game one. Frankfurt has had strong practices this week and every player will be ready to come into the game and make a difference
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It was a big surprise that Alba Berlin played under their abilities in game one. They had had a short three game series against Ludwigsburg, while title holder OPEL SKYLINERS had played a long and intensive five game series against the Artland Dragons. "The Artland series made us more intense and we took that momentum into the Alba Berlin series, which helped us beat them in game one", said a confident coach Murat Didin. Alba Berlin has a strong roster and is capable of breaking out of their game on funk at any moment. Berlin will still be without the big American Michael Wright for the next three games, which will be an added bonus for the OPEL SKYLINERS. Frankfurt has the homecourt advantage now and also the memory of their big win in March over Alba Berlin in the Ballsporthalle. "We have a very good confidence level now, but we are not cocky. We are working hard in practice. If I see a player, who is not giving its all, then I will say something", said a focused Tyrone Ellis.
Even though Alba Berlin won the rebounding battle in game one 35 to 29, Frankfurt did a decent job, keping the big Serbia-Montenegro center Jovo Stanojevic in check with 11 points and only five rebounds. Tyrone Ellis says that Marko Bulic of Quakenbrück nearly beat them single-handedly, but something like that will not happen against Alba Berlin. "Stanojevic is the key for them suceeding. We will not let him beat us. The keys continue to be strong team defense and team rebounding." Frankfurt will need to do a better job of containing the other big guy Szymon Szewczyk, who scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. "We were able to force Stanojevic to take some bad shots in game one. We will have to continue to play good defense and also make Szewczyk take low percentage shots", said center Bernd Kruel.
The OPEL SKYLINERS seemed to have reached playoff shape due to the long series against Quakenbrück and their very focused win in game one in Berlin. However, coach Didin knows the road to the final is still a long way away. "We played 40 good minutes, but only lead 1 to 0. We need to play another strong 80 minutes to advance. We know what we can do and we know that we will have the homecrowd in game two. All my players can perform well. I know that we have a good chance of winning game two at home and I believe we will win this game." The OPEL SKYLINERS are favored in game two and if they can use their strong play at home to their advantage, then they should travel back to Berlin with a 2 to 0 lead. Game two is Thursday at 18:45 in the Ballsporthalle in Höchst.
Miles Schmidt-Scheuber reporting for the OPEL SKYLINERS
