Amicale Steesel left Esch/ho4 with a clear 101-85 road win in the M-U22 Qualifications, taking control after a turbulent first quarter. Basket Esch burst to 11-2 on early triples by Matt Jaeger, Malik Demirovic and Luka Stankovic and still led 15-4, but Coach Daniel Alves Brandao de Sousa's time-out reset Amicale's rhythm. The visitors closed Q1 on an 18-5 surge to lead 22-20.
The second period swung back and forth: Bob Rech splashed two early threes, Esch answered with a 7-0 run to 40-36, then Amicale replied with a 12-2 close to reach halftime up 48-42. After the break Landon Wohl and Kelvin Almeida Lopes de Pina pushed the gap to double digits; Fabien Vandler's shot-making briefly slowed the trend, but Rech added more long-range damage for 72-61 after three. In the fourth, Almeida Lopes de Pina (20 years, 1.88m) opened with back-to-back threes and another basket to keep Esch at arm's length, Rech nailed more from deep, and Daniel Tshilumba (AMI) hit the triple for 101.
The numbers underline it: Amicale hit 16 threes (Rech 7, Almeida Lopes de Pina 6) to Esch's 9, a 21-point swing that outweighed Esch's small edges on twos (21-20 made) and free throws (16-13). Almeida Lopes de Pina (32 pts; Season PPG: 17.83) was relentless, Rech added 21 (Season PPG: 16.57) and Sean Bugeja (18 pts; Season PPG: 17.57, 18 years, 1.85m) was steady at the line. Wohl chipped in 8, while Jules Reuter (AMI) added 12.
For Coach Dejan Pavlovic's Esch, Deni Sabotic (19 pts; Season PPG: 19.14) led the way, with Vandler (18; Season PPG: 18.00), Demirovic (18; Season PPG: 8.00) and Stankovic (15; Season PPG: 12.40) contributing. Jaeger (5; Season PPG: 7.00) and Raphaël Cessat (FRA) added support.
In the table, Amicale climb to 3rd (5-3, +1), while Esch stay 5th (3-5). Amicale bounce back after two straight losses; Esch's three-game winning run is halted.
(AI generated)