The fans that followed the team from Hessen got to see a different starting five. “We are aware of the fact that the hot phase of the season is coming up and we wanted to work on our alternative formations”, Coach Zeltinger commented on the unusual starting five with Thomas Gundert, Markus Legath, Kai Gerlach and the two North Americans Joey Johnson and Michael Paye. But in the first quarter this formation didn’t work out as well as planned although Michael Paye had a really strong day.
So the host happened to take the lead (10:7) at the end of the first quarter. Especially on offence the top team from Wetzlar wasn’t dangerous enough. The situation changed in the second quarter, when the team around Captain Joey Johnson was able to put more pressure on the opponents on defence which brought more success on offence too. Six points by German national teammember Gesche Schünemann and another seven points by US-Pointguard Michael Paye assured the lead at halftime (28:14).
The third quarter turned out to be the strongest for RSV Lahn-Dill. In these 10 minutes alone they forced nine turnovers and made a couple of good shots from outside the paint. In the 26th minute the game was pretty much decided with 42:22. Once more Michael Paye with his great performance and between the 28th and 39th minute a strong appearance by Marco Zwerger with his rainbow-shots increased the score to 53:31 in the 35th minute, which was the biggest point-difference of the game. “We saw that we still have to work a lot on some lineups, but I am sure that we are going to be where we want to be at the beginning of the playoffs. And we’ve seen that our normal starting five is really strong and able to increase the tempo from average to excellent in a few plays“, Nicolai Zeltinger commented after the interesting match in Osnabrück.
Osnabrück: Mimoun Quali (17), Jens Schürmann (9), Brian Roberts (5), Johannes Hengst (4), Bernd Hüsemann (2), Rudi Springmeier (2), Rainer Happeck, Andre Jörling.
Lahn-Dill: Michael Paye (23/1), Marco Zwerger (11/1), Joey Johnson (7), Nicolas Hausammann (6), Gesche Schünemann (6), Dirk Köhler-Lenz (4), Thomas Gundert (2), Jan Kampmann (2), Kai Gerlach (1), Markus Legath, Annika Zeyen.