Sparta Bertrange edged Mambra Mamer 52-49 in a tight M-Coupe des Jeunes 1/16 finals game and moved on after a strong second-half turnaround.
Mamer, coached by Gianluca Pellegrino Ombroni, controlled the opening period. They led 18-9 after one quarter and reached the game's highest lead at 20-9 early in the second. Henry Alberto Murray (17, 1.82m) gave them early punch with 7 points in a row in the first quarter, while Tadas Stalauskas (17, 1.93m) added inside-out support. At halftime, Mamer were still in front 24-19.
The game changed after the break. Sparta, under Christian Michael Wulff, opened the third quarter with 7 unanswered points to erase the deficit and take the lead. That quarter ended 21-10 for Bertrange, with Ata Tastekin (17, 1.91m), Thandizo Jon Zulu (SPA) and Diego Maestro Varillas (SPA) driving the comeback. Sparta also produced another key 7-0 run late in the third, from 33-34 to 40-34.
Mamer reacted well in the fourth. A 6-0 burst brought them back from 36-42 to 42-42, and Alexis Georges Bourgoignie Martin (17, 2.00m) was important in that push. But Sparta answered immediately with 7 straight points, moving from 42-42 to 49-42, a decisive stretch in such a low-scoring game.
Murray was the game-high scorer with 20 points for Mamer, ahead of Stalauskas with 11 and Bourgoignie Martin with 9. For Sparta, Tastekin and Zulu both scored 10, while Ari Marinosson (16, 1.99m) added 8, and both Nikolaos Papanikolaou (17, 1.86m) and Maestro Varillas finished with 7. Murray hit the last 2 points from the line to cut it to 49-52, but Sparta had done enough in the decisive moments.
(AI generated)