It works for the Weilheim "Red Devils"

Created: 01/26/2022, 09:45 am

By: Roland Halmel

Revenge successful: The Weilheimers (white jerseys) won the away game against TSV Wolnzach.

In the first leg (the photo shows a scene) they had lost.

© Roland Halmel

The basketball players of TSV Weilheim are slowly getting rolling.

At TSV Wolnzach, the team achieved a surprising result.

Another newcomer played a strong role.

Weilheim – The basketball players at TSV Weilheim are doing well after returning from the break.

At TSV Wolnzach, coach Darryl Millwood's team clinched their second away win in a row in the second regional league.

With the 71:65 (44:39) success, the district townspeople not only made amends for the 68:88 defeat in the first leg, they also jumped up in the table to eighth place.

"Wolnzach is known for its good defense, but ours was better," Millwood said, above all, the strong defensive performance was the decisive factor in Weilheim's third win of the season.

Millwood had to change his tactical route due to the short-term absence of Andreas Brem.

"Without Andy, I didn't dare to play a zone defense," reported the TSV coach, who relied on a mixture of zone and man marking in the first half.

But that only worked to a limited extent.

The third-placed host, who has strong long-range shooters, threw ten three-pointers.

That made Millwood ponder at the break.

Many three-pointer throws by the opponent make the coach ponder

After the change he switched to zone defence, with Raphael Sedlmayr and Alex Thumser taking over from Andy Brem.

"Both did a great job," said Millwood, pleased that the measure was fruitful.

Wolnzach only managed three threes in the second half.

The good defensive work of the Weilheimers was accompanied by a decent offensive performance, to which Milan Keser, another new signing, contributed his part with 15 points at the end.

“He is 2.06 meters tall.

When he's under the basket with Miljan Grujic, it gets pretty shady for the opponent," says Millwood about the two veterans, who play extremely well for the team.

"They don't want to score points no matter what, they are team players," Millwood praised the duo, with whom the Weilheimer are much more stable and appear more balanced.

Both teams fought a duel at eye level in the first quarter, in which the long-range shooters – the Thumser brothers Alex and Andreas shone on the guest side – set the accents on the offensive.

At the end of the quarter, the Weilheimer set themselves apart for the first time (25:20).

They also defended the five-point lead in the second quarter, not least because they also scored regularly from the free-throw line.

However, this rate decreased after the break.

This is one of the reasons why Wolnzach fought back in the third quarter to within a single point (57:58).

In the final round, the guests even fell behind with 61:63 (35th).

In front of the permitted maximum audience of 25 spectators, including half a dozen Weilheim fans, the Millwood troupe kept their nerves.

In the last five minutes, the guest defense was bombproof.

The hosts only get two points.

Johnny Millwood, who is slowly regaining his old strength, with a three-pointer and new signing Keser with six points in the final minute sealed the first home defeat of the favored Hallertauer.

"The win was really hard fought," said Millwood.

Statistics:

Weilheim's players and points: Alex Thumser 24/3 threes, Milan Keser 15, Johnny Millwood 9/1, Alex Thumser 7/2, Alex Brem 6, Matthias Modrok 4, Miljan Grujic 4, Raphael Sedlmayr 2.