Dunav 2007 won again in Samokov

Pavel Noykov

22-10-2007 01:34

In a close and dramatic game, Dunav 2007 Rouse beat Rilski Sportist Samokov in their own gym 76-73. Last season, when those two teams were fighting for a place in the play-offs, Dunav were the winners in this game by 2 points. Now they repeated the already familiar exercise, but now with one more point to spare.The score were on fine balance during most of tonight's game and even in the first quarter the lead changed hands quite a few times. The result at the end of the 10 minutes was in favour of Rilski Sportist – 24-20.

Then the tide turned. Although Dunav 2007 head coach Rumen Shopov had problems with playmaker Lubomir Spasov and center Ninoslav Tmusic notching up 3 personal fouls each, the guests had a great second period and lead by 4 points at halftime – 39-43.

After the break, the Shopov's problems with accumulated personal fouls continued, but he went on relying on his main 6 players for the game and they did not betray him. The captain Pavel Noykov again was in his highs and played without substitution the whole 40 minutes. Thus, the vistors had ana even bigger lead at the end of the third period - 52-61.
In the last quarter Rilski did their best to come back into the game and even win it. And they almost did it. The difference was 9 points at the beginning of the quarter, but quickly became only 4, which remained almost until the end. The last minute turned into a real drama. Both teams tried different things, in order to celebrate after the signal. In a typical free-throw challenge though the guests showed stronger nerves and grabbed the victory.For the team from Rouse, Pavel Noykov was scored a total of 26 points, took 6 rebounds and had an excellent ratio from the free throw line – 12/13. Ivan Nikolov helped with his 20 points, while Nikolay Gospodinov added 16. Ninoslav Tmusic grabbed his routine 10 rebounds. For the hosts of Rilski Sportist, Branko Mirkovic scored 20 points and the other guard Aleksander Gruev (our chat guest for tomorrow) added 14 points. The second Serbian in the lines of Petko Delev – Miko Golubovic grabbed 13 rebounds.