First-placed Arantia Larochette stayed on top of the qualification table at 13-1 with a 99-88 home win over Racing Luxembourg, now third at 9-5 and down one place. It was Arantia's 10th straight victory, while Racing extended its losing run to three games. Arantia also completed the 2-0 season sweep after the earlier 65-62 away win.
Karolis Abramavicius' side took control early. Arantia moved quickly to 15-4 and 20-7, with Noé Tibold (Season PPG: 21.79) already setting the tone; he scored 14 points in the first quarter alone. The home team led 32-20 after 10 minutes and then stretched the margin to 38-20 in the second, their highest lead of the first half.
Racing answered well before the break. Aleksandar Babic (Season PPG: 10.08), Angelo Caruso (Season PPG: 19.85) and Timothée Lahure (Season PPG: 10.20) helped cut the gap to 54-44 at halftime. The third quarter did not change the balance much because 19-year-old Portuguese guard Edson Rafael De Sousa Silva, 1.88m (Season PPG: 23.80), produced a strong stretch with 13 points in the period, including three 3-pointers, and Arantia stayed in front 76-64.
The game became tense in the fourth. Racing got back to 81-80 after back-to-back threes from Caruso and pressure around Tibold, who later fouled out with 34 points. That was the key moment. Arantia answered immediately with a 15-3 run from 81-80 to 96-83, driven by De Sousa Silva, Mykolas Maindron (Season PPG: 17.80) and Lars Bosdijk (Season PPG: 4.08).
Top scorers were Tibold with 34, De Sousa Silva with 29 and Maindron with 17 for Arantia; Caruso had 19, Babic 18, Louis Cocard (Season PPG: 8.67) 17 and Lahure 16 for Racing.
(AI generated)