Racing Luxembourg B controlled the middle of the game to beat Black Star Mersch 86-69 and move up one place to 2nd in the phase finale table, while BSM stayed 5th. Racing also made it three wins in three meetings with Black Star this season and now has two wins in a row.
The opening was competitive. Black Star led 15-13 after the first quarter and extended the margin to 21-15 early in the second, with captain Ylan Madoki Bigas (Season PPG: 22.59) setting the tone. Racing, coached by Christian Nittler, then changed the rhythm of the game. From 13-21 down, RACB produced a 21-4 surge to reach 34-25, turning a difficult start into an eight-point halftime lead.
BSM still had a reaction after the break. Madoki Bigas scored 8 points in a row for his team and the gap was cut to 38-36. That was the key moment. Racing answered immediately with an 11-0 run, with the 13-year-old Finnish player Akseli Heikki Virkkunen and Jean Georges Pongas (Season PPG: 7.26) at the center of it. By the end of the third quarter, RACB had stretched the lead to 66-42, their highest cushion of the evening at 24 points.
Pongas finished with 26 points, Virkkunen added 14, Timofei Plechko (Season PPG: 8.18) scored 13, Nicolas Breistroff (Season PPG: 10.79) had 10, and captain Raphaël Massard (Season PPG: 8.37) added 9. For BSM, Madoki Bigas was outstanding with 36 points, carrying much of the offense. Maxime Louis Toussaint, the 12-year-old French player, scored 11, while Luca Donini contributed 8.
Black Star won the fourth quarter 27-20, but Racing's third-quarter break had already created the decisive separation.
(AI generated)