RSV Lahn-Dill also wins in Cologne
Title-defendants RSV Lahn-Dill have secured the Autumn Championship of the wheelchair basketball Bundesliga with a clean record. On this ninth and last game-day of the first half of the season the Middle Hesse team won deservedly 92:65 (20:20/48:30/67:45) over Cologne 99ers and stay unbeaten at the top of the table, whilst chasers Zwickau got ruffled in Trier.
But firstly Nicolai Zeltinger’s team did have more work with the committed squad from the Rhine valley than the coach of the ten-fold German Champion would have liked. Especially the Dutch trio Paul Toes, Edwin Schalkx, and Frank de Goede were hard nuts to crack, so RSV were behind 11:14 in the sixth minute.
The game continued very levelled and animated thanks to Cologne’s Benjamin Lenatz until the 24:26 (12th min.). It was in the 13th minute when national player Bjoern Lohmann changed the scoreboard to 27:26 and Wetzlar finally got the lead. This was the starting signal for the rest of his team and the game turned around and was dominated by RSV’s Juniors-world-champion Thomas Boehme, who had another great game, achieved an a lot more comfortable 41:30 (16th min) already before half-time.
RSV continued that way after the changeover, with US-American Steve Serio scoring the 57:39 (24th min) and former Cologne-player Joe Bestwick pushing further to 73:47 (31st min). Despite the game having been pretty much a done deal the audience still got to see an attractive game with good scoring on both sides, after Cologne managed to recuperate in the final phase of the game from the Lahn-Dill-storm earlier on. Despite the score neither one of the teams took any pace off the game so the game finished after 40 exciting minutes at 92:65 for RSV.
Aside from the two top-scorers Michael Paye and Thomas Boehme the two German national players Jan Haller and Bjoern Lohmann also deserve a special mentioning regarding their performances. For Cologne it was especially Benjamin Lenatz who had probably his best game for his new team so far, whereas the RSV-defence had their biggest offensive threat, Paul Toes, well under control.
“Cologne defied us very well in the first quarter, and also later on. The spectators had an exciting game to watch.” Zeltinger was happy after a worthwhile game and added: “When we put Dirk Koehler and Bjoern Lohmann on court we especially moved up a step in defence.”
After a surprising 73:83-defeat for RSV-Rivals RSC-Rollis Zwickau by Dolphins Trier the points-difference has now increased further to four points. The top-of-the-table team from Wetzlar will now have to assert themselves on the upcoming weekend for promoted team SGK Heidelberg.
Cologne: Benjamin Lenatz (21), Edwin Schalkx (18), Frank de Goede (14/1 Dreier), Matthew Gee (6), Paul Toes (6), Patrick Richter (4), Sedat Oezbicerler (2), Frederic Jäntsch, Gabriel Kasapoglu (n.e.), Marina Mohnen (n.e.), Dominik Zielke (n.e.).
Lahn-Dill: Michael Paye (24), Thomas Boehme (21/1), Joe Bestwick (14), Dirk Koehler (12), Steve Serio (11), Jan Haller (6), Bjoern Lohmann (4), Annabel Breuer, Thomas Gundert, Christopher Huber, Marco Zwerger.