Black Star Mersch defeated Basket Esch B 112-86 in Mersch and moved up two places to 2nd in the M-U16 Division 3 Phase finale. Basket Esch B stays 6th and is now on a five-game losing streak.
BSM imposed itself early. Coach Aleksandar Petrovic's team opened with an 8-0 run, then answered Esch's first-quarter comeback with another 8-0 burst from 21-17 to 29-17. Basket Esch B reacted well in the second period. Dave Schmit and Amilcar André Rodrigues Moreira helped cut the gap to 40-38, and that was the away side's best phase. Still, Mike Gölhausen carried BSM at that moment, scoring 11 straight team points in the quarter, and Mersch kept a 58-47 halftime lead.
The key moment came just after the break. From 58-47, BSM produced a 14-1 run to 72-48. During that stretch, 16-year-old Spaniard Alvyn Madoki Bigas (Season PPG: 35.69) scored 8 BSM points in a row. Esch never fully recovered, even if it kept competing through balanced scoring. BSM later stretched the margin to a game-high 34 points at 112-78.
The home attack was dominated by two players: Bigas finished with 45 points, while captain Mike Gölhausen (Season PPG: 39.07) added 44, including 15 made two-pointers, 3 made three-pointers and 5 free throws. Together they scored 89 of BSM's 112 points. Romario De Oliveira Pais (Season PPG: 6.57) added 10, and Rolando Nienaber Mendes (Season PPG: 14.93) had 9.
For LALB, the scoring was more spread out. Rodrigues Moreira (Season PPG: 8.25) and Colin Ral Schneider (Season PPG: 8.43) each scored 17, Teoman Dalkilic (LALB) added 12 in only his second game of the competition, and Schmit (Season PPG: 3.89) with 11 plus Bo Zarotti (Season PPG: 5.94) with 11 kept Esch productive, especially in the second quarter.
(AI generated)