Skyliners bounce back to surprise Rytas, 61-70

Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt bounced back from a big loss last week and surprised two-time 7DAYS EuroCup champion Rytas Vilnius with a 61-70 victory on the road in Group D. Skyliners were coming off a 27-point defeat at Unicaja Malaga but Erik Murphy responded with 23 points to go with 9 rebounds for an index rating of 24. Jason Clark scored all 14 of his points in the third quarter while Trae Bell-Haynes had 11 points and Quantez Robertson collected 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals. The Skyliners improved to 2-1. Rytas dropped to 1-2 despite 19 points from D.J. Seeley and 11 each from Dominique Sutton and Evaldas Kairys. Seeley's and-one made it 10-2 for Rytas early. Murphy came off the Skyliners bench with 8 points in an 0-9 run to tie 15-15 after 10 minutes. The game went back and forth then, with Murphy and Bell-Haynes scoring for Skyliners and Seeley and Sutton for Rytas, which led 29-26. Murphy added 6 more points and put Skyliners up 34-35 at the break. Seeley and Sutton pushed the Rytas lead to 48-42 after halftime. Skyliners roared back with Clark scoring 10 in a 0-12 spurt for a 48-54 advantage. His next basket made it 50-58 after 30 minutes. Seeley cut the gap to 55-60 early in the fourth quarter only to have Bell-Haynes scoring twice to keep Rytas at an arm's length. Kairys managed 2 scores for the hosts to make it 61-67 late, but Bell-Haynes grabbed a big offensive rebound and converted for a 61-69 lead with less than 2 minutes and Skyliners held on for the win.

Back and forth

The first three quarters were truly a back-and-forth affair with 17 lead changes and 7 ties.

Game-changing sequence

Rytas was leading 48-42 midway through the third quarter when Jason Clark scored 10 straight points in a 0-12 Skyliners run to go up 48-54. Rytas never got closer than 4 points the rest of the way.

Key performer

While Jason Clark had the big third quarter and Erik Murphy was great with 23 points and 9 rebounds, the Skyliners' 10-year veteran Quantez Robertson was all over the court, scoring just 5 points but collecting 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals.

Hidden stat

Skyliners did a great job controlling the ball with just 9 turnovers compared to 15 for Rytas. And the hosts were held to just 1-of-11 from three-point range for 9 percent.

Next games

Rytas will look to snap a two-game losing streak next week when it takes on Fiat Turin at home. After two road contests in a row, Skyliners return home looking to move its record to 3-1 against Mornar Bar.