Fourth-placed Nitia Bettembourg B moved up one position after a clear 80-51 road win at ninth-placed Musel Pikes C, whose two-game winning streak stopped despite also gaining one place in the standings.
Musel opened well through Christian Heinesch (Season PPG: 14.64), but the first turning point came quickly. After 5-4, Bettembourg produced a 15-3 surge to reach 19-8. Eric Picco (Season PPG: 11.21) was already on a roll there, hitting four first-quarter three-pointers and scoring 12 of those 15 points. Musel stayed in touch at 20-25 after 10 minutes.
The home side reduced the gap to 25-27 early in the second quarter with five straight points from Sven Klauner (Season PPG: 4.92), yet Bettembourg answered immediately. Wesley Almeida, the 20-year-old guard (Season PPG: 11.75), brought pace and scoring, while Picco kept stretching the defence. From 27-32, NITB closed the half on a 15-5 spell for a 47-32 lead. Musel coach Pit Ries tried to stop the rhythm with two first-half time-outs, but Bettembourg stayed in control.
The game broke open in the third quarter. Musel briefly scored four in a row to get to 36-50, then Bettembourg answered with a decisive 17-2 run to 67-38. Almeida was central in that sequence, mixing two- and three-point scoring, and the lead reached 30 late in the period. Bettembourg's highest margin was 35 points at 80-45 in the fourth.
Picco finished with 25 points, Almeida added 20, and Elvin Muhovic contributed 9. For Musel, Heinesch had 15, Maximilian Tschiderer (Season PPG: 11.09) scored 14, and Klauner added 9. NITB also answered well after its previous loss and has now won six of its last seven games.
(AI generated)