Basket Esch edged BBC East Side Pirates 57-55 in a close W-U16 Division 2 Phase 1 game, a result that moved LAL up to 3rd place (+2) and left BEP 4th (-1).
Pierrette Birchen's team started well. Esch went ahead 9-2, with Yara Tavares Dias (LAL) giving the early scoring impulse, and kept a 14-11 lead after the first quarter. The Pirates reacted strongly in the second period. They turned 18-15 into 24-18 and went into halftime in front, 26-23. That six-point margin was the biggest lead of the game.
The third quarter stayed very balanced. Basket Esch rebuilt a 41-37 advantage, but BBC East Side Pirates answered with an 8-0 run to close the period at 45-41. Captain Nelly Ney (BEP) was central in that sequence and in the whole second half. Early in the fourth, she extended the visitors' lead to 49-45.
Esch then found its key response through Diana Costa de Sousa (LAL), who scored 7 of her team's next 10 points. A crucial moment came at 53-51, when Jana Meyer (LAL) committed a personal foul and then a technical foul in the same sequence; BEP used that swing to level at 53-53. The winner then came from Mia Mischo (LAL), whose back-to-back baskets gave Esch a 57-53 cushion. Maud Wagener scored the last 2 points for the Pirates, but BEP remained just short.
Costa de Sousa finished with 20 points for Esch, Tavares Dias added 14, and 12-year-old Emma Muratovic (LAL) had 9. For Aziz Ndiaye's side, 14-year-old Nelly Ney (BEP) matched the game-high with 20 points. Wagener and Lena Lentz each added 6, while Emma Kasel, Emmi Françoise Schroeder, Liz Diederich and Julie Ronck all contributed 5 or 6.
(AI generated)