Tight 57:61-defeat in Zwickau
The guys from RSV Lahn-Dill had to travel home from Zwickau last Saturday carrying the weight of a tight 57:61 (18:18/25:30/43:48) defeat on their shoulders. The away-loss against their arch-enemies from Saxon now means that all hopes for the first spot in the main round in the Play-Offs are gone, but the hopes are still high for the second one.
“This defeat is disappointing for all of us, as we didn’t use our chances for good preconditions for the Play-Offs. Nevertheless we have to see though that in this high-class game we were the ones making more mistakes.” says Head-Coach Nicolai Zeltinger after 40 intense minutes on court. The 41-year-old adds fiercely: “We know what mistakes we’ve made, so now we have to work on them.”
Around 50 fans travelled to Zwickau to see their club act in a very level game, were their team was able to shoot to the lead 12:9 (5th min) thanks to Captain Michael Paye. But already at this point hosting team’s Briton Ghaz Choudry let everyone see that he was having a good day. The 18:18 only seconds before the end of the first quarter was already his tenth point of the game.
The following quarter brought the tough deficit onto RSV Lahn-Dill that the team tried to shake off during the rest of the game, sadly unsuccessfully. The Middle Hesse team managed to get the lead briefly (25:22) in the sixteenth minute, but four minutes without scoring turned the lead into a 25:30-deficit. “Just before half-time we allowed ourselves too many mistakes, this gave Zwickau mental strength and cost us the win.” says Zeltinger in his analysis.
The current German Champion returned a lot more determined and presented themselves strong defensively and very quick. At 33:34 (24th min), reached due to baskets by Joe Bestwick, Jan Haller and Top-Scorer Michael Paye, RSV caught up again with the opposition, who were acting just as strongly and always, most of all Ghaz Choudry, seemed to have an answer. Him, his fellow Briton Ademola Orogbemi as well as Czech Centre Adam Erben were the ones to then finish off the game. With a 8:0-run from 50:49 (34th min) to 58:49 (36th min) put the Wetzlar team under immense pressure, after Joe Bestwick had to temporarily take an early seat on the bench down to his fourth foul.
With a last time-out in the 35th minute Zeltinger tried to get his team to change their ways, which seemed to get somewhere as Haller, Bestwick and Koehler then scored six quick points leading to 55:58 (38th min), but again it was Ghaz Choudry scoring his 28th point putting 60:55 on the scoreboard, only 55 seconds before the final whistle. With a tough fight RSV managed to get the final result tighter, and therefore were able to set the direct comparison with the first Zwickau-game to their favour, where the result was 61:56. This very small points-difference opens up a realistic possibility for spot two, as Zwickau’s game against top-of-the-table-team Thueringen still lays ahead.
Upcoming Saturday the team will be able to make up for the defeat when they welcome table-fourth Mainhatten Skywheelers at home in the August-Bebel-Sporthalle.
Zwickau: Ghazian Choudry (28), Adam Erben (10), Ademola Orogbemi (8), Marcin
Balcerowski (4), Rostislav Pohlmann (4), Matt Sealy (3), Jaap Smid (2),
Günther Mayer (n.e.), Frank Oehme (n.e).
Lahn-Dill: Michael Paye (22), Joe Bestwick (14), Jan Haller (14), Dirk
Köhler (6), Thomas Böhme (1), Thomas Gundert, Björn Lohmann, Felix Schell.