Sovereign home-win over bottom-of-the-league-team Jena
RSV Lahn-Dill did a good job on this seventh game-day of the RBBL, even without shining. The 72:27 (21:8/37:16/56:22) result was clear, despite the guests’ ability to take the flow out of their opposition’s game and despite tactically clever ruining RSV’s offence. Top-scorer of the game was international Thomas Boehme with 21 points.
“They did act quite cleverly” did RSV-coach Nicolai Zeltinger admit, showing his respect for Jena’s tactics. Despite not standing a chance against their hosts, playing in front of 750 people in Wetzlar, the Caputs did not lose their cool, took advantage of the 24 seconds and didn’t rush into anything. This obviously took some speed out of the game, but also led to RSV having to live with criticism for not pressuring enough.
But the game also gave RSV the chance to start with a different line-up in preparation for the first game in the New Year, when Michael Paye and Steve Serio will still be in America. And it did work, Nicolai Zeltinger was happy after the game “It was very good to see what Thomas Boehme managed, together with Jan Haller and Bjoern Lohmann.”
Together with “the two long ones” Joe Bestwick and Dirk Koehler, the trio managed a quick 9:2 (4th min), topped by ten points in a row by Boehme going from 17:6 (8th min) to 27:10 (13th min). On Lars Christink’s side it was predominantly Marcus Kietzer who kept his team in the game at least a bit, and who helped keep the game level-ish in the second quarter.
The change-over was followed by RSV’s strongest phase, who increased the point-difference with Paye and Serio getting a good number of steals. Dirk Koehler, in the offence, pushed the score up to 47:16 (25th min) scoring eight points in three minutes. Applause was given for Jena’s former Junior international Andy Ortmann who scored a three in the last quarter, but that was quickly outstripped by Steve Serio scoring three of three free-throws and also setting the scene for Joe Bestwick with great passes.
“Our hit-ratio was good with 53%, but thanks to our opponents tactics we only managed 62 shots at the basket overall” was Zeltinger’s explanation for this superior but still slightly odd game. This upcoming weekend RSV will be travelling to Belgium for their away-game against Roller Bulls St. Vith.
Lahn-Dill: Thomas Böhme (21), Joe Bestwick (14), Dirk Köhler (12), Steve Serio (11), Jan Haller (8), Felix Schell (4), Michael Paye (2), Annabel Breuer, Nico Dreimüller, Christopher Huber, Björn Lohmann, Marco Zwerger.
Jena: Marcus Kietzer (12), Jeff Watson (6), Andy Ortmann (5/1), Rainer Müller (2), Frank Oehme (2), Lars Christink, Frank Semmler.