Musel Pikes won a game that stayed alive deep into the fourth quarter, 77-68 at Basket Esch, and moved up two places to 1st in the W-U16 Division 1 Phase finale. Basket Esch dropped one spot to 3rd.
The opening quarter swung twice. Musel started 4-0 through Zoé Freitas (Season PPG: 28.23), then Esch answered and later trailed 14-21 before closing the period on 8 straight points to lead 22-21. Estelle Birnbaum (Season PPG: 17.07) was central in that burst.
The decisive change came in the second quarter. Musel opened with an 11-0 run for 32-22 and imposed a much stronger inside rhythm. Esch reacted with back-to-back threes from 15-year-old Ajla Adrovic (Season PPG: 15.38) to cut it to 30-34, but Musel finished the half better and led 45-32.
Esch came back well after the break. Birnbaum, Kim Ferron (Season PPG: 16.06) and Anaïs Gocel, a 16-year-old French guard (Season PPG: 15.88), helped the home side trim the gap to 49-50 in the third. Musel still entered the last quarter ahead, 58-52, after Marie Gloden (Season PPG: 17.19) and Freitas answered again.
The fourth quarter was close until Musel created the biggest gap of the game at 69-54 with a 9-0 run. Esch still pushed back with 8 unanswered points to get within 68-73, but Musel closed with the last 4 points.
Top Musel scorers were Marie Gloden with 23, Freitas with 19, Sonia Garcia Garcia (ESP, Season PPG: 16.88) with 11 and Lisa Kleuls (Season PPG: 8.41) with 10. For Esch, Adrovic had 21, Birnbaum 17, Ferron 13 and Gocel 8. Musel has now won five in a row, while Esch's three-game winning streak ended.
(AI generated)