Gréngewald Hueschtert C were the late winners, taking a 58-56 road result at Nitia Bettembourg B. The win moved GREC up one place to 3rd at 12-8, with a second straight victory, while NITB remained 5th at 10-10 and slipped to a second consecutive loss. It also reversed the first meeting, which Bettembourg had won by 33 points.
The game evolved in clear phases. GREC edged the first quarter 11-10, but NITB had the stronger second period and won it 20-14 to lead 30-25 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, the hosts looked in command: Mathieu Ercolani (20) scored 7 points in a row and pushed Bettembourg to its highest lead, 37-26.
That was the turning point. GREC answered with a strong finish to the third quarter, won that period 19-12 and went into the last quarter ahead 44-42. Craig Forde's team had balanced scoring from its main weapons: Mathieu Franco (Season PPG: 16.11) scored 11, Michail-Kosmas Kouris (Season PPG: 17.00) also had 11, Diogo Melicio Paiva (Season PPG: 12.00) added 10, and Anastasios Kotsopoulos (Season PPG: 12.70) finished with 9. Leonidas Grigoriadis (Season PPG: 4.80) gave them two important three-pointers.
NITB still created a winning position late. Ercolani, outstanding with 24 points in only his 3rd game in this competition, hit back-to-back threes for a 56-52 lead. From there, though, GREC closed on a decisive 6-0 run: Kouris scored inside, Olaf Recht (Season PPG: 2.83) tied it at 56-56, and Franco scored the last basket of the night for 58-56.
For Bettembourg, Luc Becker (36) added 10 points, Noah Butler (Season PPG: 4.92) had 9 with three made threes, and 1.86m forward Ben Mölling (Season PPG: 5.00) contributed 6. Each side had one unsportsmanlike foul in the second half, but the key element was GREC's recovery from 11 points down and its execution in the final minutes.
(AI generated)