Basket Esch won a close road game at Amicale Steesel, 77-72, and Dejan Pavlovic's team moved up to 6th place (+1) with a third straight win. Amicale stayed 3rd.
The game stayed balanced early. Basket Esch led 10-6, but AMI answered through Elyass Zaourou (AMI), who scored 8 first-quarter points, including a 3-pointer for a 16-14 lead. Esch still edged the first period 18-17.
The second quarter brought the first real swing. Amicale opened with 6 unanswered points for 23-18, but Basket Esch reacted well. After AMI still led 27-23, the visitors put together a 13-0 run to reach 36-27, with Luka Stankovic and Raphaël Cessat heavily involved. Another late push gave LAL its biggest first-half margin at 44-33 before Bob Rech (Season PPG: 15.43) hit from deep for 36-44 at the break.
Amicale came back well in the third quarter. Noah Stansbury Daleiden (Season PPG: 11.67) and Rech reduced the gap, and after AMI trailed 47-54, Rech and Sean Bugeja (Season PPG: 18.14) nailed back-to-back 3-pointers for six straight points and a 53-54 score.
AMI briefly went ahead 55-54 early in the fourth, but that was the crucial moment of the game: Basket Esch answered with a 17-2 burst to 71-57. Deni Sabotic, the 18-year-old Montenegrin guard, made the difference with 29 points overall and 16 in the last quarter. Cessat, a 19-year-old French player, added 14 points, while Stankovic finished with 15.
Amicale still pushed back with 13 unanswered points from 57-71 to 70-71, mainly through Stansbury Daleiden, Zaourou (AMI) and Rech, but Esch stayed composed in the last minute. For AMI, Stansbury Daleiden scored 18, Zaourou 11, Rech 11 and Bugeja 9.
(AI generated)