2018-19Top 16Round 1
ratiopharm Ulm 70
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt 63
January 03, 2019 CET: 20:15
Local time: 20:15 RATIOPHARM ARENA

Ulm continues win streak, holds off depleted Skyliners

ratiopharm Ulm opened the Top 16 with a hard-fought 70-63 win in an all-German League showdown against the visiting Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt in Group F on Thursday night. It was the third consecutive victory for Ulm, which won its last two regular season games. Javonte Green paced the winners with 20 points and Patrick Miller had 15 points and 8 assists. Skyliners, which were without six players for this game, saw Jason Clark net 18 points, on 4-for-6 three-point shooting plus 7 rebounds and Quantez Robertson scored 13 with 8 rebounds in defeat.

Ulm got the first advantage, using threes from David Kraemer and Green to open a 10-4 lead, but the visitors replied with a 0-9 run, during which Clark hit a two and a three to put the visitors in front. The Skyliners held a 14-15 edge after the first quarter, and a low-scoring battle continued into the second as a three-pointer from Robertson and a transition three from Ulm's Ismet Akpinar were the only baskets in almost 4 minutes to open the second quarter. Miller had a three-point play that tied it at 20-20 and the teams kept trading blows. The Skyliners took slim leads through Clark and Erik Murphy, but Miller scored 6 points before halftime, including a last-second floater to make it 33-33 at the break. Ulm went in front early in the third behind a pair of triples from Kraemer for a 45-37 lead. However, Robertson answered with back-to-back triples before Clark and Shawn Huff followed with a triple apiece and the visitors went back ahead 49-50. Gavin Schilling helped the hosts take a 53-50 edge into the fourth quarter. Green strung together 7 points, including two big dunks, helping open a 62-54 lead midway through the fourth. Clark's triple gave the visitors hope and Huff's 3 free throws got them within 64-62. However, Miller drove for a tough runner and Green forced a turnover with 42 seconds remaining and Ulm up 66-63. Ryan Thompson made 2 free throws on the ensuing possession to put the game away as Ulm prevailed.

Pivotal performer

Javonte Green scored 9 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including 7 consecutive to start the final quarter and help Ulm open an 8-point lead. In the final minute, with Ulm clinging to a 66-63 lead, Green forced a turnover from Quantez Robertson to all but seal the deal.

Tight contest

Neither team had a lead bigger than 8 points in this contest, with Ulm's 62-54 margin midway through the final quarter being the largest margin of the night.

Something about all-German affairs

Ulm has not held opponents below 75 points during any regular season game this season, and the last time Ulm allowed fewer than 70 points was exactly two seasons ago, in its 2016-17 Top 16 opener, a home loss against fellow German side FC Bayern Munich. The 70 points scored was Ulm's second-fewest point total in a EuroCup victory and the lowest since beating Paris Levallois 56-48 in December 2013.

Visitors depleted

Skyliners had an eight-man rotation due to injuries to six players: Akeem Vargas, Trae Bell-Haynes, Leon Kratzer and Brady Heslip, Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann and Niklas Kiel.

Next game

In Round 2, the Skyliners will be at home and welcome Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar while Ulm goes on the road to visit LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

Javonte Green - ratiopharm Ulm (photo Ulm - Florian Achberger) - EC18
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: CORTES, CARLOS; VOJINOVIC, MILIJA; BAUMANIS, INGUS
Attendance: 3025
By Quarter1234
ratiopharm Ulm14192017
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt15181713
End of Quarter1234
ratiopharm Ulm14335370
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt15335063
ratiopharm Ulm
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 REINHARDT, KATIN 8:14 3   1/3         1         2    
2 MILLER, PATRICK 28:03 15 6/10 0/1 3/4   1 1 8 1 1     1 6 23
3 EVANS, DWAYNE 24:26 4 1/2 0/2 2/2   7 7 2 2       2 2 12
5 GREEN, JAVONTE 29:01 20 6/8 1/5 5/5   5 5     1     2 3 19
6 GUENTHER, PER 10:07   0/1 0/3         3         2 1 -2
7 THOMPSON, RYAN 13:59 2 0/1 0/1 2/2   1 1   1       4 2  
8 AKPINAR, ISMET 17:45 5 1/1 1/4     2 2 1 1 3     2 2 3
12 RADOSAVLJEVIC, BOGDAN 1:07           1 1     1     2   -2
30 UGRAI, MAXIMILIAN 24:28           3 3     1 1   1 1 3
34 SCHILLING, GAVIN 13:45 6 3/4     1 2 3     3 2 1 3 1 4
42 FOTU, ISAAC 16:14 6 2/4 0/1 2/2 4 2 6     1     2 3 9
44 KRAEMER, DAVID 12:51 9 0/2 3/5     1 1     1   1 1   3
Team           1 5 6     1         5
Totals 200:00 70 19/33 6/25 14/15 6 30 36 15 5 13 3 2 24 21 77
        57.6% 24% 93.3%
Head coach: LEIBENATH, THORSTEN
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 MURPHY, ERIK 23:19 10 4/6 0/3 2/2           2 1   3 3 4
1 CLARANCE, ELIJAH 14:00 6 2/3 0/3 2/3   1 1   1 1     1 2 3
3 ZEEB, GARAI 23:26 4 0/1 0/4 4/4   4 4 7 1 2   1 5 3 6
5 CLARK, JASON 33:53 18 3/8 4/6     7 7 2   5     3 2 14
7 HUFF, SHAWN 28:51 10 1/2 1/1 5/5 1 3 4 1 1 2     2 2 13
9 FREUDENBERG, RICHARD 21:41   0/2 0/1   2 4 6 2   1   1 3 4 4
14 KAYSER, AARON DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15 TRTOVAC, ARMIN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 ROBERTSON, QUANTEZ 34:07 13 0/1 3/9 4/6 1 7 8 1 2 3 1 1 3 5 14
33 VOELLER, MARCO 20:43 2 1/3 0/1   1 1 2           1 3 3
Team           3 1 4               4
Totals 200:00 63 11/26 8/28 17/20 8 28 36 13 5 16 2 3 21 24 65
        42.3% 28.6% 85%
Head coach: HERBERT, GORDON

Head Coaches

LEIBENATH, THORSTEN
ratiopharm Ulm
"If you have Gordon Herbert as head coach on the bench and Quanez Robertson on the court, you can expect nothing else than a hard-fought match. I felt that they came out ready, we came out ready. We had a nice early run, but this is where my team probably felt it’s going to be easy tonight. We settled for too many outside shots, we did not attack the basket enough, we did not get to the foul line enough in the first half and that’s why they stayed in there. That opened up opportunities for Frankfurt when we did not use our opportunities. In the second half, I felt our defensive pressure improved, and our physicality and our attack mode on offense improved. And that’s what got us the win. We got more stops, we got to the foul line more, and we did not settle for early unnecessary threes. We attacked way more and I felt overall our victory is deserved."
HERBERT, GORDON
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt
"I think we got the tempo we wanted, for the most part we got them in a half-court game. We just got beat with too much penetration in the second half, getting to the rim. We had some tough turnovers in the fourth quarter, which hurt us but, overall, considering our situation, I thought the effort was really really good. We competed and played hard."

Players

GREEN, JAVONTE
ratiopharm Ulm
"The Skyliners are a tough team. We just played them this weekend, so it is hard to beat a team twice in a row. They came out shorthanded, but they have a good team and a good coach. I tried to stay focused and tried to give my team an extra push we needed in the fourth quarter. This win is huge for us. It is a goal that we had coming into this season and to accomplish this is a good feeling, to win our first Top 16 game."
MURPHY, ERIK
Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt
"They made some good plays down the stretch. They are a tough team, athletic, get out in transition. We had a couple of turnovers late that hurt us. It was just a tough game."
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