RSV Lahn-Dill show two different sides against Hamburg

Very different quarters lead to 75:62-success

RSV Lahn-Dill have shown two very different sides of their performance on this 18th and last game day of the main round in the RBBL. In front of a great audience of about 1200 spectators did they deliver a great first and fourth quarter, but the second phase of the game was unarguably bad. Not even the fact that Topscorer Thomas Böhme was off sick can be used as an excuse. The opposition in the semi finals will be Trier. 

At the start it looked like Hamburg would be overrun by RSV Lahn-Dill. After the 2:5 (2nd min) by Reo Fujimoto, the team surrounding captain Michael Paye upped a few gears, and only four minutes later this scores was changed to 17:5, thanks to 4 threes by US-American Steve Serio. Whilst the fans were still celebrating the 23:5 (9th min), the game took an unexpected turn for the worst in the 2nd quarter, for no apparent reason. 

The guests from the north now focused their game predominantly on their two Japanese Reo Fujimoto and Hiroaki Kozai. Especially the latter made hitting the basket from a distance seem easy, whilst his team mate worked hard under the basket. At the same time, the hosting team was struggling, as two of their best lineups did not work without Thomas Böhme, which left them unprepared and disorganised. The Japanese duo managed 21 points in Hamburg’s 6:27-run, which lead to a 29:32 score in the 18th minute. It could have been worst though, if centres Felix Schell and Dirk Köhler hadn’t carried their team. 

The team returned a bit more focused from their halftime break, but the mark that the first phase had left was noticeable. RSV did still not shine, but their determination to fight back in front of their noisy fans has to be appreciated. They managed to get out of a painful 39:45 lead by their guests, and fought back into a 52:50-lead (28th min) that set the basis for more confidence in the last quarter. 

The BG Baskets managed a last lead thanks to Swiss national player Philip Häfeli (56:54, 31st min), before again Steve Serio took over and lead his team into a 13:2-run and onto the road to success. "Steve had a phenomenal game today, only his mind is faster than his arms on court" said Nicolai Zeltinger about his player’s performance, adding "These were 40 very intense minutes. With Tommy missing we were lacking two very strong lineups. Annabel and Felix had to take over, but Felix surely had his best game for RSV today."