RSV Lahn-Dill win an unbelievable DRS-Cup final
Title defendants RSV Lahn-Dill have won the DRS-cup final again, after they had to fight their way back out of the valley of tears being behind 12:34 in the fourteenth minute against hosting team RSB Team Thueringen. In the end the Wetzlar Rollis were able to cheer over their 75:73 (12:24/29:36/45:50/63:63) success after overtime.
“We were basically already defeated, before we found the tactical measures that we needed, to get back into the game with this incredible strength.” Assistant coach Ralf Neumann was still out of breath 30 minutes after the DRS-Cup final. His team started into the game pretty levelled with the opposition (8:10, 6th minute) but then fell back more and more. The Thueringen basket seemed nailed shut in this phase, whilst the opposition hit everything from anywhere. The game went via 10:18 (8th min) and 12:24 (10th min) to 12:34 in the 14th minute, and a win seemed further away than ever for the favourites.
But it was captain Michael Paye, who then scored eight points in a row, putting his team back into the game to 20:36 (16th min). One reason for the turnaround was a tactical adaptation in the defence that lead to more success. Top scorer Aliaksandr Halouski, who seemed unstoppable before and was also getting a lot of rebounds in his own defence, now got defended by two people, Steve Serio and defence-specialist Marco Zwerger. This tactic was fruitful, so that RSV Lahn-Dill managed to come back before half-time with a 13:0-run.
After change-over national player Bjoern Lohmann got really close again with the 33:36 (21st min), but the hosts from Elxleben had found their response to RSV’s tactical changes. So the game went back and fourth, without the Middle Hesse team getting on top though: 40:48 (28.), 47:54 (31.) and 52:56 (33.) were the way-stations before the team put all their strength together and Thomas Boehme got the basket in that tied the game 21 seconds before the final siren.
But this final strong push claimed its victims, as RSV had to do without their captain, as Paye had fouled out. When Steve Serio fouled out in the 42nd minute as well, it looked like Thueringen were holding all the trump cards again, despite RSV leading 70:67. But the hosts had to cut their losses as well as Halouski fouled out as well. In the end it was British national player Joe Bestwick who forced the final decision to 75:71, causing an endless cheer for the RSV fans that had travelled with their club to support them.
“This game was absolutely unbelievable, but great at the same time.” says RSV-coach Nicolai Zeltinger, looking very exhausted. But above all the respect has to go out to team Thueringen, who had basically beaten their opposition, before they rose from the ashes to win their 11th DRS-Cup.
Thüringen: Joakim Linden (21), Aliaksandr Halouski (20), Raimunds Beginskis (12), Jens-Eike Albrecht (9), Teemu Partanen (9), Vasily Kochetkow (4) Taz Capasso (3), Marcin Balcerowski (2), Karol Sculz (n.e.).
Lahn-Dill: Michael Paye (22), Joe Bestwick (21), Steve Serio (13), Thomas Böhme (8), Dirk Köhler (7), Björn Lohmann (4), Jan Haller, Marco Zwerger, David Amend (n.e.), Christopher Huber (n.e.), Felix Schell (n.e.).