Future Sports Meckenheim – Basketball Regional League: Meckenheim’s basketball players win 85:79 against Essen

Despite a still thin staffing level, the Future Sports Meckenheim regional league team was able to win against the second representative of ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen with 85:79 in mid-November.
In front of the home crowd, coach Dominik Seger was missing not only veteran Jonas Hartmann due to injury, but also two players, Christoph Fresen and Simon Benentreu, for the big position near the board. Since center player Dominik Hutzler was fit to play but not yet fully operational after a long injury break, the burden under the basket initially fell to Etienne Ravoro Akendengue. However, the Meckenheim board player had to struggle with foul problems early on and was therefore only able to collect reduced minutes of action.
At the start of the game, Meckenheim’s personnel concerns had no impact on the home team’s game. Future Sports started the game well in front of almost 100 spectators and led 31:14 in the 11th minute. The Meckenheim guards around Kilian Althoff and Malte Fresen were rarely stopped by the guest defense and the remaining “big guys” also did a good job. Essen didn’t find any involvement in the encounter, struggled with the referee’s decisions and, after repeated complaints, was punished with a technical foul against the coach. Apparently that was the wake-up call for the team from the Ruhr area. Future Sports lost their dominance and gradually allowed the guests to shorten the gap. A 22:14 run by the Black and Whites made the halftime score 45:36. The break gave Meckenheim the chance to collect themselves in order to regain the rhythm of the game with the restart and at least maintain the lead. But 11 quick Essen points at the start of the third quarter turned the game around completely. Essen was leading, the home team was behind 45:47. Meckenheim now needed a wake-up call for his part. And he succeeded; However, not through a technical foul, but through important impulses from the bench. Led by team captain Simon Voll, who scored 10 of his 11 points in this phase, Meckenheim initially turned the game around. Marlow Theis put his team in the lead at 53:52 with a layup. Jan Krüger, Marlow Theis again and captain Voll stepped up and in the 29th minute it was 68:58 for Future Sports. Once again, the Seger team was unable to maintain or extend their lead. Essen fought its way across quarters and equalized again in the 36th minute (75:75). Coach Seger called a timeout and interrupted Essen’s 17:7 run. The interruption and the speech during the time-out had an effect. The Meckenheim defense now worked and the balls fell into the net. 35 seconds before the end it was 80:77, Essen had the ball and the chance to equalize. But the guests lost the ball due to a step error. On the counter-attack, Malte Fresen moved to the basket, was surrounded by two opponents and, out of trouble, brought the ball to Etienne Ravoro Akendengue, who safely converted the lay-up to make it 82:77. The hall cheered. Two quick counters from Essen could no longer endanger Meckenheim’s victory. Malte Fresen and Marlow Theis kept their nerve at the free throw line and made the final score 85:79.
After this victory, Future Sports is in third place in the table with 6 wins and 2 defeats behind the unbeaten team TG Düsseldorf and SG Bergische Löwen, who have one defeat on their account.
On December 9th, Future Sports will welcome the league leaders from Düsseldorf at 6:30 p.m. in their home competition hall for the last home game before Christmas.
The players playing against ETB Essen were: Fresen, M. (16/1 threesome); Fresen, J. (6); Althoff, K. (12/1); Theis, M. (13/1); Krueger, J. (6); Full, p. (11/1); Steffens, B. (2); Ravoro Akendengue, E. (11); Steffens, L. (6); Hutzler, D. (2)
Information about the club and other game dates can be found on the social media channels or at: www.future-Sports-meckenheim.de