Levski is the first team to qualify for semifinals of Cup "Ledenika"

18-03-2008 21:23

The team of Levski is the first semifinalist in Men’s Cup of Bulgaria. This became reality after The Blues recorded second straight win against Rilski Sportist. In the arena that will held the Final Four of the tournament in Samokov, Levski won hard fought victory 79-75.

The hosts started great the game. With the intention to win and take the series to a decisive game Rilski Sportist took 11-0 lead in the first minutes. However Levski bounced back and started to cut the deficit. So at the end of the first quarter the score was 23-19 for the hosts.
The visitors took the lead for first time at 25-23. From now on in this quarter things on court were even so was the score at the break, 40-40.

The third quarter started much better for Levski. The hosts were playing badly and made a lot of turnovers. In those minutes Asen Saraliyski left the game for fouling out and the leader of the team Aleksandar Gruev had some injury problems which didn’t let him play very well in the latter stages of the game. So Levski held a 67-58 lead in the 28th minute. In the last minutes the hosts managed to cut the deficit to three points.

In the last quarter the visitors continued to be in front by a little. The players of Levski kept their advantage but their hosts were close and still had chances. With a minute to go they were down by only 3 points but unfortunately for them couldn’t do more and in the end went out of the tournament.

Santos Martinez played his best game for Rilski Sportist since his arrival. He finished with 26 points and 6 rebounds. Very good played also Branko Mirkovic with 17 points and 5 rebounds.

For Levski Stanislav Slaveykov had nice game with 22 points. Asen Velikov added 13 while Veselin Veselinov finished with 12.

Now Levski will have to wait to know the opponent in the semifinal game as Balkan and Cherno More Eurohold will play third and decisive game in Botevgrad on Thursday.