Telstar Hesperange moved on from the cup 1/16 finals with an 80-65 home win over Black Frogs Schieren, but the game was not linear.
Christophe Thil's team made a striking start. Telstar opened on a 22-0 run and reached its highest lead there, with Tom Roden (TEL), Jamie Kappler (TEL) and Oleksandr Senchenko (TEL) setting the tone. Schieren then changed the game completely. From 22-0 down, Serge Logelin's side answered with a 21-4 stretch to close the first quarter at 26-21.
The visitors even took the lead at 31-30 in the second period. Elyass Zaourou (21, FRA) and captain Benjamin Kezie (FRO) carried that push. Telstar reacted well to that difficult moment, finishing the half on an 11-2 run for a 41-33 advantage, with Max Klepper (TEL), Lorenzo Ferrari (28, ITA) and Roden involved.
The third quarter remained controlled by Telstar rather than broken open, and the home side kept Schieren at arm's length at 55-44. In the last quarter, Black Frogs still threatened at 61-54 and later 69-62. Zaourou stayed on a roll and scored 9 straight Schieren points during one fourth-quarter sequence.
Zaourou finished with 28 points and Kezie with 24, meaning the pair produced 52 of Schieren's 65 points. Both later fouled out, a major blow for the comeback effort. For Telstar, Senchenko scored 15, Vladimir Vukovic (36, BEL) added 14, Kappler and Klepper had 10 each, Ferrari 10 and Roden 9. Telstar's answer runs after each Schieren surge kept the game under control and sent the home side into the next round.
(AI generated)