Basketball team finished the regional tournament with a solid third-place finish

After the Steinmühlen basketball team in Competition Class II successfully won the district tournament, they advanced to the regional tournament shortly before Christmas. Under the guidance of Coach Jonas Neirich, the team set high goals for this tournament as well.

In the group stage, the goal was to finish in second place so as not to completely exhaust ourselves at this early stage.

As expected, the team won its first game against Alsfeld by a score of 35–10. “We also managed to win the second game against the team from Limburg by a score of 50–28,” reports Marc Bepperling.

Steinmühle was set to face its toughest opponent, the Liebigschule from Gießen, in the third game of the group stage. Marc Bepperling: “We tried to hold our own, at least at the beginning, but we adjusted our strategy very quickly as the game went on to conserve our players’ energy. We lost the game 10–33, but at least we finished the group stage in second place, as planned.”

A Fun End to the Tournament

In the semifinals, the Steinmühle team had to face the top team from the other group: “The Humboldt School turned out to be an evenly matched opponent, and it was probably the most exciting game for us.” The teams gave each other little leeway, and it remained close right up until the last minute. With the score at 32–34 in favor of the Humboldt School and only 7 seconds left on the clock, Steinmühle called a timeout and tried to win the game with a 3-pointer. The “carrier,” Hannes Bergmann, took on this task, but unfortunately he couldn’t sink the 3-pointer. “So we had to admit defeat with a score of 32–34,” Marc Bepperling sums up in retrospect.

“In the match for third and fourth place,” he continues, “we were able to come out on top with a score of 32–12 in a very fun game and finish the competition with a solid third-place finish.”

The team would like to thank Jonas Neirich and Michael Neirich for their dedication and the great work they’ve done with the team. Marc Bepperling: “We’d like to highlight the consistently outstanding performance of Hannes Bergmann, who has been a tremendous support to the team and helped drive it forward. With their extensive basketball expertise, Anton Schneider, Luka Hartmann, and Jonah Schorm were also a great help and were able to support the team well with their experience from past competitions. A big thank you also goes to Eren Pektas, who keeps the team’s spirits high at all times. Of course, we’d like to thank all the players and are proud of the team’s performance. We wish everyone a great start to the new year.”

Players:
Hannes Bergmann
Pablo Mediavilla
Luka Hartmann
Anton Scheider
Fabian Seidel
Eren Pektas
Leo Tschentke
Xaver Teres Loytved
Jonah Schorm

Coaches:
Jonas Neirich
Michael Neirich
Marc Bepperling