Racing Luxembourg opened the M-U18 Division 1 Phase finale (round-robin, Aller/game 1) with a 91-79 win over Musel Pikes at tramsschap/central, avenging the 79-66 defeat from Phase 2. The tone was set in a dominant first quarter: Racing led 32-9 after closing the period on an 11-0 burst, with 17-year-old Bulgarian Stefan Stoykov (Season PPG: 22.4) piling up early points, including three free throws in a row. Coach Hristo Stoykov's side kept control to halftime (50-30) and stretched the gap to a game-high +29 (76-47) late in the third, fueled by perimeter accuracy.
Racing's outside shooting was a separator: nine made threes (Stoykov 4, Yair Portal Levav 2, Pete Rajniak 2, Oskar Berger 1) versus four for Musel. Stoykov led with 26 points, Sarunas Sulcas (Season PPG: 15.0) added 18, Portal Levav 12, Rajniak 10 and Berger 11. Louis Cocard (1.89 m) fouled out in the fourth, but Racing managed the finish with two late free throws from Berger.
Musel rallied in the last act. Abram Macalou (Season PPG: 24.5) poured in 15 points in the fourth alone and totaled 36, sparking a 12-2 run that trimmed the gap from 87-67 to 89-79 before time ran out. He got support from Jules Henri Ghislain Jacquet (14), Omar Youssef Essid (12) and Geoffrey Schlammes (11). Fifteen-year-old German Ben Matthias Schenk chipped in 6.
Under coach Majdi Anan, Musel showed resilience after the break (they took the second and fourth quarters), but the early deficit proved too steep. In classification, Racing move to the top at 1-0, with Musel second at 0-1.
(AI generated)