82:37 win in a very uneven game against Trier
This top game on the sixth game day of the RBBL last Saturday turned into a very uneven duel when the hosting team had to play without their three top players. The Goldmann Dolphins Trier had to go into the game without top-scorer of the league Dirk Passiwan, Dutch international Marc van der Kuilen, and low-pointer Peter Mueller, and lost the game against title-defendants RSV Lahn-Dill 37:82 (6:18/18:32/26:63) without even standing a chance.
Around 300 spectators came to watch the game, in which it took the hosts about 8 minutes to find into the game with their new line-up. By that point the RSV starting five had already set the score to 18:2. Especially Thomas Boehme had a great first quarter and added 8 points for his team.
“After realising that we had gotten hold of the game we used the opportunity to practice for the first game in the new year “ explained RSV-coach Nicolai Zeltinger the unusual line-up that started the second quarter. In the first game in January RSV will have to do without the US-Americans Michael Paye and Steve Serio, who have obligations with their national team. Same as Trier before, it took the Middle Hesse team about six minutes to get used to the situation. This and the Dolphins getting Latvian Diana Dadzite into the game made the game more interesting. Two threes by her as well as 2 points by Canadian Chad Jassman pushed the hosting team forwards to a 26:15 (18th min).
After changeover RSV found back into the game and earned their ovations. The eleven-fold German Champions moved via 46:20 (25th min) and 54:22 (27th min) to 61:24 (29th min) thanks to a three-point-play by New Yorker Steve Serio, who had a brilliant third quarter scoring 22 points, getting 15 rebounds and nine assists, only just missing the triple double.
The fourth quarter looked a tad better for Trier, mainly down to World Champion Janet McLachlan and another three by Diana Dadzite, but that only polished their score slightly. “We’ll get over this defeat and can only hope, that we’ll get back to our normal squad fairly soon” said player-coach Dirk Passiwan, who himself wore the RSV-vest about ten years ago, after the game. As well as Serio, internationals Jan Haller and Briton Joe Bestwick showed great performances.
“Of course, this game was overshadowed by the personnel deficit for Trier, which helped us trying different things on court. I’m very happy though that Annabel Breuer is back after being ill and had a good comeback” was Nicolai Zeltinger’s analysis of the game. This upcoming weekend will take the team to Munich to play in the first round of the DRS Cup, first against SGK Heidelberg, and then depending on the outcome against either USC Munich or Sabres Ulm.
Trier: Diana Dadzite (15/2 threes), Janet McLachlan (10), Tyler Saunders (8), Chad Jassman (2), Karlis Podnieks (2), Florian Ewertz, Tracey Ferguson.
Lahn-Dill: Steve Serio (22), Joe Bestwick (16), Thomas Böhme (12), Michael Paye (12), Dirk Köhler (10), Jan Haller (8), Felix Schell (2), Annabel Breuer, Björn Lohmann, Marco Zwerger.