Special 70:65 success over table-seconds Thueringen
RSV Lahn-Dill made the impossible possible and turned around a game thought by many to be already lost against RSB Team Thueringen without their world-class players Michael Paye and Steve Serio, as well as Thomas Gundert, who came to watch his first game since his surgery in December. In the end it was their faith in their own strength which moved mountains, and with the fantastic support of their fans the team won 70:65 (16:21/30:42/52:51) at home over the second placed team in the table.
“I am proud of the team, how they fought back in the second half, and how they believed in themselves with brains and courage.” says RSV-coach Nicolai Zeltinger after this very special game on Saturday night at August-Bebel-Sporthalle. About 1.000 spectators watched how the team acted tactically clever from the start, but did let a lot of opportunities slip through. The weak hit-ratio early on led to problems on the defence, which guests Thueringen obviously took advantage of.
After the 10:11 (7th min) by centre Joe Bestwick, RSV continuously fell more and more behind. Especially Belorussian centre Aliaksandr Halouski was put into great positions by his team and he did not disappoint. At 20:29 (14th min) he had already scored 14 points. So it happened that the RSV-deficit grew up to 26:39 (18th min), before the half-time siren released the team. “We knew, despite the big deficit, that we were on the right track tactically, and did not really change anything after half-time” says Zeltinger, who at least must have had the right choice of motivational words in the changing rooms, as his men came back out with their heads held high and a fair amount of anger in their stomachs, and fought back. And they did not leave without a reward.
Junior-European champion Thomas Boehme helped his team in this unusual position sovereignly to the front, adding 8 points to the scoreboard right at the start of the second half and got the gym to the boil when he got RSV to their first lead after six more minutes (44:43). RSB-coach Josef Jaglowski countered with a time-out, which led his team to lead again 46:49 (29th min) and jeopardised RSV’s comeback again. But carried by an incredible atmosphere in the gym, the Wetzlar team kept their nerves in this precarious situation against the crumbling challengers.
A spectacular block by the phenomenal Briton Bestwick and his following three-point play leading to 49:49 (29th min) heralded a final phase in which the title-defendants acted emotionally strengthened and did not let the guests get to them again. Especially Bestwick was now unstoppable and added another 14 points within eight minutes to the score, most of them from middle-distance (70:62, 39th min). The following three by Swede opponent Joakim Linden was now no threat anymore.
In the end there was no halt for the team’s nor the fans’ cheering, and not even two minutes after the final siren team-mates Paye and Serio had already sent their congratulations from North America, where they had been watching the live-score on the internet. “We will probably have to find out over the next couple of weeks and months how we have to rate this performance and it’s worth for this season” says an over-the-moon Nicolai Zeltinger after the game, including low-pointer Bjoern Lohmann’s phenomenal defensive efforts into his praise for the whole team.
Lahn-Dill: Joe Bestwick (28), Thomas Boehme (21), Dirk Koehler (10), Jan Haller (6), Bjoern Lohmann (3), Felix Schell (2), Marco Zwerger, David Amend (n.e.), Annabel Breuer (n.e.), Christopher Huber (n.e.).
Thüringen: Aliaksandr Halouski (31), Joakim Linden (14/1 Dreier), Jens-Eike Albrecht (8), Raimunds Beginskis (4), Taz Capasso (4), Teemu Partanen (4), Marcin Balcerowski (n.e.), Karol Sculz (n.e.).