League leader T71 Dudelange stayed unbeaten at 3-0 with a 78-51 home win over third-placed Etzella Ettelbruck, but the gap on the final score did not reflect the first half. T71 started better and went up 17-8 behind early scoring from Tunn Wirion (T71), Daris Honsic (T71) and Tom Kloos (T71). Etzella answered well, closing the first quarter on a 6-2 stretch and then winning the second period 12-6. Marvin Delgado dos Santos (ETZ) and Gilles Schock (ETZ) helped Nelson Delgado's team take a 26-25 lead into halftime.
The game changed immediately after the break. Mike Smith's side opened the third quarter with 10 straight points, turning a one-point deficit into a 35-26 lead. Kloos, a 17-year-old guard, scored the first 7 points of that run himself. T71 kept control for the rest of the quarter, won it 30-12 and entered the last period ahead 55-38. The lead later reached 27 points, the biggest margin of the evening.
T71 had three major scorers: Wirion (T71) with 22 points, Honsic (T71) with 20 and Kloos (T71) with 20. Together they produced 62 of the team's 78 points. Kloos made four 3-pointers, while captain Honsic, also a 17-year-old guard, scored from all three levels. Nik Lahure (T71) added an efficient second-half spark with 8 points.
Etzella stayed competitive through two quarters. Delgado dos Santos (ETZ) finished with 13 points, Schock (ETZ) added 11 despite four fouls, and Lenny Lopes Morais (ETZ) scored 9. After halftime, however, T71's third-quarter surge decided the game.
(AI generated)