AS Soleuvre, now 2nd in the Phase finale after gaining one place, beat 4th-ranked T71 Dudelange 75-70 in a close game. Carlo Ferrante's team controlled long stretches, but the win was secured only in the final minute.
Soleuvre set the tone early with a 9-3 start and closed the first quarter ahead 21-14. T71 answered well in the second. Ben Stork sparked a 7-0 run to cut 23-14 to 23-21, and after Soleuvre moved to 35-25, Dudelange answered again with a strong push to 35-35. Soleuvre then regained momentum before halftime, with Phillipe Vieira Geraldes (Season PPG: 20.83) scoring five straight points for the 40-35 lead.
The third quarter remained balanced. Soleuvre kept small margins through Lou Lahure (Season PPG: 25.63), Timéo Weber (Season PPG: 20.37) and Maximilien Edouard Tran Van Mang (Season PPG: 8.69), but T71 stayed close and trailed only 56-53 after 30 minutes.
The home side created the key gap at the start of the fourth. Lahure and Vieira Geraldes led a 10-2 spell for Soleuvre's biggest lead, 66-55. Daniel Wolf's team reacted again: Pol Guedes (Season PPG: 12.21), captain Ben Kloos (Season PPG: 13.95) and Ivan Barbic, a 13-year-old from Croatia, brought T71 back with a 15-5 run, cutting it to 71-70. The decisive sequence followed immediately, when Vieira Geraldes hit a three-pointer for 74-70 and Lahure added the final free throw.
Vieira Geraldes finished with 29 points, including five three-pointers. Lahure added 19 and Weber 15 for Soleuvre. For T71, Guedes scored 15, Noah Baseggio (Season PPG: 13.59) had 12, Barbic 10 and Kloos 9. Soleuvre has now won all four meetings against T71 this season.
(AI generated)