On Sunday afternoon, 3.860 fans were watching a thrilling game of their home team against the guests from Bamberg at the Frankfurt Ballsporthalle. At the intermission the score was 38-29. Outstanding from among the OPEL SKYLINERS: Mario Kasun and Andy Kwiatkowski. Again and again, Mario was giving Bamberg a hard time under the board, while Andy hit 3-of-4 three pointers and a game-high 21 points in total.
The OPEL SKYLINERS had been holding a mostly double figure lead, until they got into serious foul trouble at the end of the third quarter. Stipo Papic commited his 5th foul in the 32nd minute, and also Mario Kasun was fouled out and had to follow Stipo off the court with 3 minutes remaing in the contest at a score of 62-57. At that point in time, the game become rather hectic with a lot of fouls and apparently was to be decided at the free throw line.
In a decisive run keyed by points from Derrick Taylor and Rick Stafford, Bamberg cut the lead down to 6 points, but Travis Conlan took advantage of a shortly inattentive Bamberg defense and responded with another three-pointer bringing the lead back to 67-60.
The final 70 seconds took relatively long - not long enough, though, for the team around head coach Dirk Bauermann. The OPEL SKYLINERS played clever by directing the ball towards their most secure free throw scorers such as Jukka Matinen. At the buzzer, Andy Kwiatkowski drilled another three from beyond the arc, which were not counted anymore. Hence, the final score remained at 76-69.
The quarters: 76-69 (19-16, 19-13, 16-14, 22-26)
