In the third meeting of the season between these teams, after one win each, Sparta Bertrange C controlled the decisive stretches and beat Zesummen Aktiv 79-66. Sparta moved up to 4th place in M-U18 Division 5: Phase finale, while ZAK is 6th.
The game started in a spectacular way. Coach Christophe Dubois saw SPAC open on a 23-0 run. Martin Cezard Mangel (Season PPG: 11.07) scored the first 8 points, Aurélien Vernaison (Season PPG: 7.78) then added 10 in a row, and 16-year-old Konstantinos Laliotis from Greece stretched the margin with his first three. ZAK reacted strongly and closed the first quarter with 20 unanswered points to get back to 23-20, mainly through Nathaniel Guth (Season PPG: 4.06) and Christophe Theiß (Season PPG: 4.06).
The second quarter brought another swing. Sparta rebuilt a 38-20 lead with a 15-0 burst, but coach Angelo Monteiro's team answered again. Jim Braun (Season PPG: 4.06) caught fire and scored 14 points during ZAK's 15-0 reply, cutting the halftime score to 38-35.
ZAK stayed close in the third and reduced the gap to 43-41. That was a crucial moment, because Sparta answered through Laliotis (Season PPG: 11.82), who hit three more triples in the period, and the home side entered the last quarter ahead 66-56. SPAC then opened the fourth with a 9-0 run to 75-56, enough to secure the result.
Laliotis finished with 24 points and 6 made threes, matching his season maximum. Vernaison had 17, Cezard Mangel 16, and Jazz Pelkes (Season PPG: 8.28) added 8 with two threes. For ZAK, Braun exploded for 28 points, also his season maximum, while Guth scored 16 and Theiß 12.
Sparta now has back-to-back wins after an earlier three-game losing streak.
(AI generated)