Over 600 spectators braved the arctic temperatures on Saturday, on their way into the warm and cozy August-Bebel gym, and they were not disappointed. For the fourth time this season the wheelchair basketball first division team RSV Lahn Dill score over 100 points. They treated their fans to an offensive show much to the chagrin of their opposition Reha Augsburg, with the final score 103:34. (25:8/53:13/82:22)
This twelfth game of the season saw two of the RSV Lahn Dill players reach significant milestones. Veteran player Dirk Köhler, the league record holder for games played participated in his 300th game. While young Kai Gerlach who is following in his teammates footsteps suited up for this 100th game in an RSV Lahn Dill jersey.
Apart from receiving a warm welcome, former RSV players Birgit Meitner and Markus Legath did not get any breaks from their old teammates. “The 27 assists is a testament to our solid offense and I think the spectators enjoyed the game” summarized RSV coach Nicolai Zeltinger after the game. It was a full team effort and this was evident in the statistics. It was not just one individual doing the scoring, the points were distributed amongst all the players as well as rebounds and assists. “This is very important during this crucial phase of league play and exactly what we need in order to continue to have a successful season” assessed coach Zeltinger who is already looking forward to the next few weeks with tough games coming up against Bonn, Frankfurt and Zwickau.
After 35 seconds playing time viewers saw the first of the RSV veteran leadership in Dirk Koehler, then captain Joey Johnson took over controlling all aspects of the game and scoring 10 of his 17 points in the first quarter. His teammates carried on the scoring frenzy throughout the game with runs of 12:2, 21:4 and 39:11. The unbeaten team from Wetzlar wanting to please their home fans worked hard to reach the 100 point marker once again this season. Six players were in double digits after three quarters of play (82:22), so it was just a question of when that 100th point barrier would be broken.
Thomas Gundert, scored the 1000th season point for the RSV Lahn Dill and increased the score to 92:26. And then, as if orchestrated by a stage director Kai Gerlach and Dirk Köhler subbed in for the final two minutes of the game. First, Gerlach hit two baskets putting the score at 99:28, then with less than one minute remaining Köhler, playing in his 300th game, scored the 100th point of the game on an assist from Gesche Schünemann.
Despite being down early the team from Augsburg played hard and never gave up. Thorsten Schmid netted 15 points in a losing cause. Coach Zeltinger was very pleased with his team especially center Gerlach and forward Marco Zwerger. Next weekend RSV Lahn Dill will go on the road to play Bonn, and later this month they will host their league rivals Zwickau.
Lahn-Dill: Joey Johnson (17), Dirk Köhler (17), Michael Paye (13), Marco
Zwerger (11), Kai Gerlach (10), Gesche Schünemann (10/2), Richard Peter (8),
Annika Zeyen (8), Thomas Gundert (7), Felix Schell (2), Jan Kampmann.
Augsburg: Thomas Schmid (15), Manfred Wolf (8), Klaus Berger (3/1), Jürgen
Heinrich (2), Markus Legath (2), Thomas Paa (2), Albert Schweinsteiger (2),
Birgit Meitner, Andreas Pecher.