Nitia Bettembourg, second in the table, defeated leaders Basket Esch 68-58 in the return game of the M-U14 Division 2 final phase. It was a clear response to the earlier 68-83 defeat in the first meeting. NIT stretched its winning run to six games, while LAL saw a seven-game streak stop. Both teams now stand at 6-1, with Esch still first.
Coach Jérôme Defer's side imposed itself early with an 8-0 start and built a 20-10 lead late in the first quarter. Esch reacted well and cut it to 21-18 at the break. Raouf Riahi's team then briefly moved ahead 22-21 in the second quarter, but Bettembourg answered quickly. Ewen Man-Fei Leung (Season PPG: 33.71), the 14-year-old French captain, was central in that response as NIT went into halftime up 42-32.
The decisive stretch came in the third quarter. Bettembourg limited LAL to 9 points and Adrian Ion Zianveni (Season PPG: 22.07) scored 8 points in a row to push the margin to 56-41, the biggest gap of the game. Basket Esch still made one last push in the fourth, trimming the score from 64-49 to 64-56 with a 7-0 run, but NIT answered through Diogo Barbosa Conte (Season PPG: 9.50) and Leung.
Leung finished with 34 points, Zianveni added 15 before fouling out in the fourth quarter, and Yohannes Thomas Michael (Season PPG: 14.00) contributed 8. For Esch, the scoring was more balanced: Rodrigo Pacheco Reis (Season PPG: 16.83) and Lorenzo Vetro (Season PPG: 10.56) scored 12 each, Arthur Léo Pierre Colle (Season PPG: 13.00) had 11, Lyan Gomes da Cruz (Season PPG: 8.35) 10, and Berin Hajdarpasic (Season PPG: 11.00) 9.
(AI generated)