Sovereign 78:39-success against old rivals
Title-defendants RSV Lahn-Dill left Zwickau last Sunday with a sovereign 78:39 (27:10/41:21/57:29)win in their last away game of the RBBL main round. US-American Steve Serio and British team mate Joe Bestwick left their mark on the game with 13 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists and the latter with 78 per cent and 32 points. “A sovereign win, but we didn’t ecactly shine.” was the comment by RSV head-coach Nicolai Zeltinger after the game at the Mosel gym, adding: “It took some time to develop the necessary aggressiveness, but then we had the ball rolling and acted with the needed speed.”
Zeltinger was talking about the rather reluctant start of the game against the Saxons, in which Rollers’ old dog Rostislav Pohlmann was able to score the 6:9 for his team after five minutes. Only now the guests from Hesse sped up, and only two minutes later Joe Bestwick had already scored the 8:18 (7th min) for his team, continuing with a tight and intense defense, getting Pohlmann and Latvian Vaytantas Skucas in bad positions. In the end both players had scored 30 points altogether, but at a hit ratio of 33 per cent, so not too painful for the Wetzlar Rollis. RSV was on a roll now, with the score at 29:10 in the 11th minute. Following this, the hosting team was able to losen the controlling grip of their opponents a bit and held the game more level. The points difference hadn’t changed a lot at 37:19 (16th min), but the game was generally not on the same level as it had been for years before.
The Wetzlar team returned with fresh vigor and after the 43:25 (23rd min) by BSC Captain Günther Mayer was countered by a 14:0-run for RSV, which Thomas Böhme finished off to 57:25 (29th min). In this phase the Wetzlar team played with a lot of pressure on the opposition, pushing the score to 66:29 (35th min), before loosening their reign and the game becoming more level again. “We played very good generally, but also had mixed phases” said Zeltinger after the game against the Saxons, not entirely convinced by his team’s performance.
Zwickau: Vaytantas Skucas (17), Rostislav Pohlmann (12), Benjamin Kenyon (4), Günther Mayer (4), Ronny Steidl (2), Vanessa Erskine, Daniel Gehse, Denny Lindner, Frank Oehme, Andy Ortmann (n.e.).
Lahn-Dill: Joe Bestwick (32), Michael Paye (14), Thomas Böhme (13), Steve Serio (13), Dirk Köhler (4), Jan Haller (2), Annabel Breuer, Björn Lohmann.