Bavarian guests without a chance at 91:28
The 60th game of the two most successful German Wheelchair Basketball Teams turned out to be a pretty one-sided affair, in which RSV got their highest win of the past 31 years together in the league. They took the guests apart at 91:28 (18:8/45:16/65:20) in front of around 950 spectators; a great first home game of the New Year. The team took the next step in their performance, something which Head Coach Nicolai Zeltinger had asked for at the start of the year, in preparation for the games that are yet to come. “Especially our defense was nearly where we want it to be, despite the fact that we still have to up our game, looking ahead to our next tasks.” The 44-year-old was overall happy with his team’s performance. The game started off a bit slow, but after the 8:2 (5th min) the hosting team got rolling. Only three minutes later the score was moved to 18:2 (8th min), with old dog Dirk Koehler scoring two three-point-plays, before Munich’s National Player Sebastian Magenheim was able to finally score his first basket at the end of the first quarter. RSV went full speed in the second quarter, where especially Center Joe Bestwick and Captain Michael Paye took turns in scoring high percentages.
The latter became top scorer in the end with 27 points, in addition to great performances in both assists and rebounds. The pace and pressure RSV were displaying didn’t leave any room for development for USC, which helped as well to get up speed in the offence as well. Thomas Böhme scored the 32:14 (16th min) of his overall great 22 points, before youngster Nico Dreimüller hit the basket form beyond the 6.75m-line, changing the score to 45:16. “Nico had a strong game today; his talent is comparable to Tommy Böhme.” praised Zeltinger the freshly 18-year-old. The game continued similarly after changeover. USC seemed to not be there until the 28th minute, when Florian Ewertz hit his first basket, leading to 55:18. Only then US-Center Suad Sutic started to score, who was hardly present before with a 20 per cent hit ratio. He scored six of his seven points changing the score to 65:24 (31st min), which polished the score slightly, before Böhme scored a three and with that started the final run for his team. The 24-year-old National Player scored 14 points in the final quarter, and in the end he was only overtaken by Captain Michael Paye. It was not only the final score that showed the Wetzlar dominance, but also the final stats in general. 49:30 rebounds and 56:19 percent hit ratio made whole thing rather clear.
Lahn-Dill: Michael Paye (27), Thomas Böhme (22/2 Dreier), Joe Bestwick (11), Dirk Köhler (10), Steve Serio (8), Jan Haller (4), Felix Schell (4), Nico Dreimüller (3/1), Björn Lohmann (2), Annabel Breuer, Christopher Huber.
München: Kim Robins (10), Sebastian Magenheim (8), Suad Sutic (7), Florian Ewertz (2), Sebastian Sauer (1), Lisa Nothelfer, Christoph Vo.