Sparta Bertrange turned a difficult game into an emphatic 81-62 road win over Résidence Walferdange, taking control after halftime and breaking through in a matchup they had lost three times earlier this season.
Résidence, coached by Raul Leandro Birenbaum, had the better first half. After trailing 13-12 late in the opening quarter, the home side produced 8 unanswered points to go 20-13 up before Sparta closed the period with 6 in a row for 20-19. In the second quarter, Sparta briefly moved ahead 30-25, but Walferdange answered with the strongest stretch of its night: a 16-2 run to 41-32, with Nojus Banys (Season PPG: 20.38) and Matas Sendzikas (Season PPG: 23.15) driving the offense.
The game changed after the break. Coach Christian Michael Wulff's team opened the third quarter with 4 straight points and kept pressing through Thandizo Jon Zulu (Season PPG: 19.65) and 15-year-old Maximilaan Flechtner from Germany (Season PPG: 18.38). Sparta entered the last quarter with momentum, then delivered the decisive blow: from 52-52, the visitors went on a 13-0 run to 65-52. That sequence, with Flechtner, Isamu-Vincent Boisclair and Petar Kulisic involved, decided the game. Sparta's highest lead was 19 points.
Zulu finished with 28 points, Flechtner added 25 with 4 three-pointers, and Kulisic scored 12. For Résidence, Banys had 23 points despite four fouls, Rafael Dos Santos Antonio (Season PPG: 17.71) added 10, while Luis Leocadio Botelho and Sendzikas scored 8 each.
In the standings, Sparta climbed two places to 1st in the phase finale table and extended its run to three straight wins. Résidence dropped one place to 3rd.
(AI generated)