BBC East Side Pirates won a close Phase finale game 61-55 against Sparta Bertrange C, moved up one place to 2nd, and turned around the earlier 54-48 loss from the first meeting. SPAC dropped two places to 7th. For BEP, it was also a second straight win after a long losing run.
The game was tight from the start. BEP went up 8-3, but Sparta answered with an 8-0 run to lead 13-8 before the first quarter closed at 16-16. Coach Mylonas' team kept good attacking balance in the second period. The 16-year-old Greek Konstantinos Laliotis (Season PPG: 12.20) and Hanad Abdi Ege (Season PPG: 4.40), a 16-year-old from Somalia, pushed SPAC in front 33-31 late in the half. BEP reacted well and finished the quarter with 4 unanswered points for a 35-33 lead.
The decisive passage came in the third quarter. After SPAC reduced it to 37-36, BEP found a better inside rhythm and opened the floor through Yannis Pividor (Season PPG: 11.00), Tristan Fievez (Season PPG: 12.09) and Sam Schaeffer (BEP). The Pirates built their biggest lead at 55-44.
Sparta still had a final push. Laliotis scored Sparta's first 6 points of the fourth quarter and twice hit from deep to bring the gap down to 58-53. A key BEP response came from Leo Carreira de Oliveira (Season PPG: 12.33), whose three-pointer stopped that momentum. BEP then protected the margin.
Pividor led all scorers with 21 points and five 3-pointers. Schaeffer added 14, and Fievez scored 10. For SPAC, Laliotis finished with 17 points and five 3-pointers, Abdi Ege had 13, and Giulio Sartorati (Season PPG: 4.13) added 9.
(AI generated)