Skyliners hold off Bayern for first-ever ANGT win

U18 Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt picked up its first-ever victory in Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament history as it opened the ANGT Munich with a 55-61 win over host side U18 FC Bayern Munich. Jordan Samare paced Skyliners with 24 points and 7 rebounds while Julius Boehmer added 12 points in the Group A game. Skyliners are playing their second ANGT event but went 0-4 at the ANGT Kaunas in the 2016-17 season. Jason George collected 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals for Bayern and Matej Rudan scored 12 points in the loss.

Bayern went scoreless for the first 3:43 minutes and Skyliners went up 0-5 until George’s basket. Filip Skubalj’s putback had Bayern ahead 9-8, but the home side hit just 2 free throws in the final 3 minutes and Skyliners were leading 11-14 after 10 minutes. Mohamed Sillah picked up 6 points as Bayern nosed ahead 19-16 early in the second quarter only to see Skyliners hit the next 7 points for a 4-point lead. Nicolas Buchholz knocked down a three-pointer after Bayern missed its first 11 attempts from long range and George followed with a long-ball to even the game at 25-25. Skyliners finished the first half on a 3-9 surge for a 28-34 advantage at intermission. Skubalj’s three-pointer opened the second half for Bayern but Skyliners reeled off a 0-10 run with 5 points from Samare to go up 31-44. And the margin was 36-50 after 30 minutes. Skyliners failed to score the first three minutes of the fourth quarter and Bayern got to within 42-50. Samare ended the drought and Boehmer’s trey made it 42-55. Bayern had one more push left with Buchholz and Rudan combining for 9 points in an 11-1 surge to cut it to 53-56. Samare scored yet another big basket with 49 seconds though to dash and Bayern hopes for the win.