CFBB U18 edged BC Mess 72-66 in Mondercange, reversing November's loss and splitting the headtohead. The game swung several times, with perimeter shooting and a late fourthquarter burst deciding it.
U18 opened 0-5 and led 18-23 after the first. Mess reacted early in the second: Deanthony Kendrick McCallum (Season PPG: 25.67) scored five points in a row to make it 22-23. Omar Youssef Essid immediately replied with five straight for 32-38, before Mess briefly moved in front at 39-38 on a Giovanni Kemevuako three. Lee Brosius answered from deep for a 39-41 halftime U18 lead.
After the break, U18 struck first through Abram Macalou and a triple by El Hadji Modou Thiam Diop for 41-50, and carried a 50-59 cushion into the fourth. McCallum opened the last period with backtoback baskets (54-59), but U18 delivered the decisive 7-0 run Brosius (five points in that spell) and Louis Cocard to 56-66. Cocard then hit a three for the largest gap at 57-69 (+12). Mess trimmed it at the stripe, including three consecutive free throws by Bruno Zinédine Gauthier (FRA, 25, 1.86m), but U18 closed it out.
The winners leaned on the arc: eight made threes against Mess's one. Mathis Dieterlen (Season PPG: 6.07) had 16 with three triples and calm late free throws, Macalou added 16 before fouling out in the fourth, and Brosius (17 years, 1.92m) scored 14 with three threes; Cocard chipped in six, all in the last quarter.
For Mess, McCallum poured in 27 and repeatedly kept his team within reach, while Gauthier scored 15. Among the clubtrained core, Pedrito Kemevuako (17, 1.80m, AGO) hit 8 and went 4/4 on free throws split across two miniruns; Giovanni Kemevuako added the team's lone triple, and Ognjen Zimonjic scored 5. Jamie Freymann fouled out. In the closing minute, coach Stéphane Frentzel received a C1 technical as frustration boiled late; Denis Toroman's side stayed composed.
In the table, Mess remain 8th and slide to a sixgame losing streak, while U18 stay 9th but string two wins in a row.
(AI generated)