Racing Luxembourg B beat US Heffingen B 88-80 and also took revenge for the 85-82 defeat from the first meeting. In the classification, RACB climbed two places to 2nd, while HEFB dropped to 3rd.
Racing started sharply and went up 12-4, with Yves Le Sayec (Season PPG: 12.06) and captain François Aulner (Season PPG: 5.61) setting the tone. Heffingen then changed the game with a 20-8 run to close the first quarter at 24-20, helped by Max Schmit (Season PPG: 16.14) hitting back-to-back threes.
The decisive stretch came in the second quarter. HEFB moved to 30-24 behind Lee Bourgeois (Season PPG: 9.27), but Racing answered after its timeout with a 15-2 run for 39-32. Xavier Engel (Season PPG: 17.21) was central in that swing, and Matteo Seracini (Season PPG: 6.00) gave strong bench production with 6 points in a row. At halftime, RACB had turned the game around at 49-41.
Racing kept control after the break. Engel and Yann Fux (Season PPG: 6.57) pushed the margin to 64-48 in the third quarter. Early in the fourth, the home side reached its highest lead at 88-70, with Engel scoring two consecutive threes.
Heffingen still showed resilience and finished on a 10-0 run, but the deficit was too large. Bourgeois matched his season high with 23 points, while Yves Bellwald, the 33-year-old 1.95m forward/center (Season PPG: 14.28), added 18. Schmit also scored 18, and Manuel Scholtus (Season PPG: 10.11) contributed 13.
For Racing, Engel led all scorers with 24 points and six made threes. Giorgio Riboldi, the 37-year-old Italian guard (Season PPG: 11.32), added 12, with Le Sayec and Fux both on 10.
(AI generated)