FRANKFURT (Basketball Champions League) - Michael Morrison was unstoppable all night long as Fraport Skyliners protected home court with a 90-80 win over Pinar Karsiyaka in the first leg of their Play-Offs qualifier on Wednesday.

Morrison attacked the rim relentlessly on his way to 35 points, only missing two shots as he went 15 of 17 from the field. He added 7 rebounds and 3 assists, along with a number of jaw dropping dunks as he finished with an efficiency rating of 40.

At points it turned into a battle between the two stars, as Pinar's J'Covan Brown shined in the defeat, scoring 29 points for the visitors, and adding 5 assists. 

But it was Morrison who shone brighter, more than tripling his season average (9.8ppg) as Fraport pulled away for good at the end of the third quarter to give themselves a ten point cushion for the second leg.

"I thought it was a good game," Morrison commented. "Both teams played really hard, I think the other team has a lot of really talented scorers and we really tried to get up on them and pressure them but they still found a way to score on some isolation plays.

"The next game will be tough but we're looking forward to it."

Kwame Vaughn had 18 points and 6 assists, and Shavon Shields finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. A.J. English joined them in double figures with 10 points and 6 assists as Fraport shared the ball to register 27 assists in the game.

Skyliners Head Coach Gordon Herbert added:

"I liked our bounce back from the game in Munich on Saturday. Today it was how we played and what we did, our effort, our intensity was much, much better. We had a real spirited practice on Monday and it carried over to the game today."

Josh Owens had 15 points and 7 rebounds and Baygul added 12.

"Obviously we're disappointed with the result," Owens said. "But it's an 80 minute game, so that's the first 40 minutes.

"We'll look forward to working on some things, making some adjustments and playing the next game at home in a couple of weeks."