CSKA reached the Final

Dimitar Mirakovski - 26 points for CSKA

07-05-2007 20:41

CSKA reached the Finals in the Men’s championship after third victory in the semifinal series with Spartak Pleven.
The Reds will play third final in four years, and as expected the opponent is called Lukoil Academic. After a turmoil first season with new sponsor, couple new coaches, and many new players, this looks like the dream finish for CSKA.
Vlado Djurovic’s boys battled hard to gain Game 3, in which Spartak was host in the hostile “Balkanstroy Hall”. Even though the match was close at all times, CSKA managed a victory with 91:80 in the end, and after the two home wins, qualified for the Finals.
Pleven team started the game very well, with Sasa Topchov making incredible first minutes, scoring the first seven points for Spartak. Unfortunately, the center forward got three personal fouls early in the first quarter, and not later his fourth one, so he spent most of the match on the bench.
Both teams showed great desire to win, and the spectators saw one high scoring, fast-paced first part, by which end CSKA trailed with three points.The second quarter started better for the visitors, who manage to keep tight defense and didn’t allow a point in the beginning. Spartak then showed it was not ready to give it up so easily, and fought back to let CSKA just one more point till the halftime.
After the break the game kept going just as it finished the first half, point by point with CSKA prevailing in some moments, but couldn’t get too far away with the score.
Great performances by Hrisimir Dimitrov, Ed MacCants and Nikolay Balev for Spartak saw Pleven team trail just by three after the third quarter.CSKA tried their best in the final ten minutes, when Dimitar Mirakovski continued making miracles on the court with just amazing fast breaks, while also getting shooting help from his teammates.
In the decisive moments it was the better physical preparation and just a bit higher quality of some Red players which gained it all for CSKA. Despite the great determination and the crowd, the strengths of Spartak Pleven were over and done with this semifinal series.Once again, Dimitar Mirakovski was the best player for CSKA, as well as for the whole game, scoring 26 points, although missing couple shots from the free throw line and outside the arc.
Both teams had great percentage shooting 3-pointers, in all the games in the series, and today were no different. CSKA scored 9 from 20, while Spartak managed 10 from 26.
For Pleven team Ed MacCants scored 18 points, Dimitrov added 17 and Balev finished with 12 points for 19 minutes on the court.
Spartak Pleven will meet Cherno more in the series for the bronze medals. The games start on May 16^th, it needs two wins for the third place.CSKA will play Lukoil Academic in the best-of-five Final series. The dates for the Finals are 18, 21, 25, 28, 31 May. These matches could be moved forward in time by request of the national team head coach Konstantin Papazov.