Nitia Bettembourg beat Sparta Bertrange B 81-65 and made it three wins in three meetings with SPAB this season after the earlier 82-66 and 91-66. The result lifted NIT to first place in the phase finale standings, while SPAB moved up to fourth despite the defeat. Bettembourg are now on a seven-game winning streak.
Coach Jérôme Defer's side took control very early. NIT opened on a 10-0 run, with French 14-year-old captain Ewen Man-Fei Leung (Season PPG: 33.80) scoring the first 6 points, and the home team closed the first quarter ahead 24-14. The gap reached 15 points in the second period at 29-14 and again at 41-26. Yohannes Thomas Michael (Season PPG: 13.86) was important in that phase with 8 second-quarter points, while Adrian Ion Zianveni (Season PPG: 21.33) added 11 points overall for a 45-32 halftime lead.
Sparta had their best stretch in the third quarter. William Norregaard Vasdo-Jensen (Season PPG: 6.46), Thor Wintersdorff (Season PPG: 10.50) and Giovanni Vena (Season PPG: 11.48) drove the comeback, and SPAB cut the margin from 47-32 to 55-53. That was the crucial moment of the game. Bettembourg answered with 12 straight points across the quarter break, turning 55-53 into 67-53, and Sparta never got that close again.
Leung finished with 35 points and 12 of them came in the fourth quarter. Jacques Zeimet (NIT) added 8 points, including 6 in the last period, and Matia Eduardo Lumbu (Season PPG: 2.73) contributed 4 useful points. For Sparta, Wintersdorff scored 18, Vena 17, while Slovenian 13-year-old Oskar Nagy (Season PPG: 10.00) and Vasdo-Jensen added 11 each. NIT's biggest lead came late at 79-59.
(AI generated)