Captain Paye with unbelievable 39 points against Roller Bulls
Top-of-the-table-team RSV Lahn-Dill and their fans presented themselves in absolute top-form for the playoffs last Saturday. The around 1.100 fans that came to watch the 93:54 (24:11/45:25/66:40) win against Roller Bulls St. Vith and delivered a brilliant party-atmosphere in the gym, fired up by their captain Michael Paye’s amazing 39 points.
It was also Michael Paye who opened the game with two baskets to 0:4 (1st min). Steve Serio scored his first three from 6,75 meters, leading to 20:9 (9th min) was a first proof of confidence for this game. The eleven-fold German Champions showed off their skills especially from the middle distance, trying to make up for the last couple of games. That way they were able to avert their opponent’s physical strength.
Another three by Paye at the beginning of the second quarter lead to 27:13 (12th min), players enjoying the game, variability and a 11:0-run created a brilliant party mood with the spectators. “Ralf and I were especially surprised at the effortlessness in the game.” resumed head-coach Nicolai Zeltinger after the game: “We have trained extremely hard during the last couple of weeks, to polish ourselves off for the playoff semi-final, EuroLeague and the Final Four.”
But even after half-time there was no sign of exhaustion to be seen. RSV kept their pace up, but also the guests from the Ardennes showed off their abilities, that have led to them beating teams like Kaiserslautern, Trier, Jena and only recently Frankfurt. Even after being behind 25:45 at half-time they kept their mental strength and added their bit to a fun-to-watch game. Especially Center Lorenzo Boterberg with a three leading to 34:51 (24th min) and his team-mate Arthur Fievet got deserved ovations from the audience.
The last quarter started off with 66:40, and the first two quick baskets were made by British centre Joe Bestwick. These were followed by two threes by Michael Paye, which added to the seven out of 14 threes by him and Steve Serio that hit the Belgians. This lead to a 50% hit ratio from beyond the 6,75 meters and around 70% from the middle distance for RSV, statistics we had been waiting for recently.
This was supported by strong individual statistics, with amazing 39 points for captain Michael Paye and 10 assists. He as well as Joe Bestwick (16 points, eleven rebounds) got therefore a “double-double”, whilst Steve Serio got himself the icing on the cake. 16 points, 13 rebounds and eleven assists got the 27-year-old New-Yorker a brilliant “triple-double”.
„This was great advertising for the playoffs“ said a happy Zeltinger after entertaining 40 minutes, adding with a smirk: “There’s only one thing they did wrong for themselves. To play this effortlessly and without heavy arms after 3 extremely tough and straining weeks of training means the coach does not have to change his training-plan!”
Lahn-Dill: Michael Paye (39/4 Dreier), Joe Bestwick (16), Steve Serio (16/3), Thomas Böhme (10), Jan Haller (6), Christopher Huber (4), Björn Lohmann, Felix Schell (2), Annabel Breuer, Marco Zwerger.
St. Vith: Lorenzo Boterberg (21/1), Arthur Fievet (14), Jamaa Saadi (6), Juan Bernal (5), Stephan Veithen (4), Ralph van Hylenbroek (2), Mounir Moujoud (2).