With the home game presented by Volksbank Halle on Saturday evening (7 p.m.) in the SWH.arena against Herner TC, the first third of the main round in the Toyota DBBL ends for the SYNTAINICS MBC. After the nine-day national team window, our women’s team will not continue until November 17th with the away game in Freiburg.
As of today, head coach Timur Topal will be able to rely on his entire eleven-man squad for the first time this season (apart from the long-term injured River Baldwin). The aim is to go into the short break on Saturday evening with our third win of the season and a balanced balance. Tickets for the game are available here.
The Lions’ backcourt with Dominika Fiszer (photo above), Emma Stach, Lotta Stach and Nicole Brochlitz will be particularly challenged. In the American Paige Robinson, drafted by the WNBA club Dallas Wings, the guests have one of the most spectacular players in the Toyota DBBL in their ranks. With 20.6 points per game, the shooting guard, who moved to the heart of the Ruhr area during the preseason, is the second best basket shooter in the entire league according to statistics from Eurobasket.com. Herne’s new French development player Claire Parisi is even listed by the specialist portal as their best assist provider with 7.8 assists per game; Dominika Fiszer is second best in the league with 5.0 assists.
As fourth in the table – and therefore four positions better than our team – the Herners are a positive surprise over the course of the season so far. Last season, the German champions had to worry about staying in the league from 2019 until the last matchday. In the summer, top performers Laura Zolper and Taylor Mingo also left. Another challenging season was feared. Now Robinson, Parisi and the new head coach Jelena Skerovic are bringing a breath of fresh air. The 42-year-old Montenegrin, who was once an active player in the Euroleague for a long time, replaced Marek Piotrowski, who has retired to the position of assistant coach after 20 years of service.
For Herne, a better record than the previous 3:2 victories would have been possible if they hadn’t suffered a 62:69 home defeat against WINGS Leverkusen, who had been winless until then, last weekend. The team was unable to compensate for the injury-related loss of new Australian center player Darcy Rees (16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds).
Lena Svanholm travels internationally
Lena Svanholm will represent SYNTAINICS MBC internationally in the upcoming national team window. The center player was called up to the Danish national team squad for the European Championship qualifiers against Great Britain in Manchester on November 7th and against Estonia in Tallinn on November 10th. Also with the Scandinavians is the former Halle player Sarah Mortensen (2022/23), who now plays for the top Polish club Torun. Denmark is in third place in qualifying group D after two matchdays with 1:1 wins behind Sweden (2:2) and Great Britain (1:1).
Only the first-placed teams and the four best runners-up in the eight groups will qualify for the European Championships in June 2025 in Hamburg, Brno/Czech Republic, Bologna/Italy and Piraeus/Greece. The four host nations are automatically qualified for the European Championships and form their own group in which test matches are played.
Lena Svanholm in the Danish national jersey. Photos: Volker Ballasch, FIBA Basketball
