Hesse-derby against Skywheelers ends with 68:52-success
Top-of –the-table team RSV Lahn-Dill kept their lead in the Bundesliga last weekend by winning 68:52 (16:17/37:26/58:36) against Mainhatten Skywheelers. In a game that was very physical from the start RSV lost their rhythm briefly at the beginning, before they found back to their ways and dominated the game safely.
“This week we started with a different line-up and were lacking a bit of confidence and got infected with the atmosphere on court.” RSV-coach Nicolai Zeltinger was not happy with the start of the game. About 500 spectators saw the 6:2 (4th min) and shortly after the 11:6 (7th min) after a three-point-play by Jan Haller, but afterwards the aggressive game of the hosting team seemed to be working whilst RSV missed a lot of outside-shots.
So it happened that the Skywheelers were leading for the first time in the ninth minute with 12:11 thanks to Sebastian Magenheim, increased by a three-point-play by Thomas Becker at the beginning of the second quarter. (20:16, 12th min). Only now the ten-fold German champions started owning the game and fought back their lead through Dirk Koehler who got the team to 26:24 (12th min) and did not let the opposition get it back. They displayed a tight defence and didn’t leave a chance for Frankfurt, who would not change their tactics. So the scoreboard changed from 31:24 (17th min) to 37:26 at half-time.
This tendency was kept after the break. Captain Michael Paye raised the score with a beautiful effort to 41:28 (21st min) and by national player Annabel Breuer (49:28, 26th min), before dominant centre Joe Bestwick was put into scene nicely by his teammates over and over. The European champion scored eleven points nearly in a row and pushed the score to 58:32 (29th min), which became the highest lead through the entire game.
RSV head-coach Zeltinger had all reasons to be happy during the second and third quarter, but in the last ten minutes his team became slower again. The guests from Wetzlar acted passively and reluctant considering their big lead, whilst Frankfurt took full advantage and managed to make the score look a bit better for themselves. “The third quarter was pretty perfect, but how we afterwards just relied on each other without taking over responsibility ourselves definitely needs some talking about.” says Zeltinger only a few days before his 42nd birthday.
Frankfurt: Thomas Becker (14), Sebastian Magenheim (14), Andi Kress (9), Sebastian Wolk (7), Anne Briessmann (4), Lars Lehmann (4), Maria Kuehn, Tim Diedrich (n.e.), Johannes Hengst (n.e.), Anna Maria Mueller (n.e.).
Lahn-Dill: Joe Bestwick (18), Thomas Boehme (12), Michael Paye (12), Dirk Koehler (9), Jan Haller (7), Steve Serio (6), Annabel Breuer (2), Marco Zwerger (2), Christopher Huber, Bjoern Lohmann, Felix Schell, David Amend (n.e.).