Slavia continues the fight with Rilski Sportist

Stefka Nikolova

18-03-2008 22:07

Slavia managed to tie the series with Rilski Sportist (1-1) in the Bulgarian Women’s Cup quarter-finals. On Tuesday night they won a much contested victory, earning the right to play a third decisive game in Samokov on 20th March. The final result was 84-77 as none of the teams gained a big lead during the game. Whoever wins the next game is going to face Dunav Ekont in the semi-finals.

Like the previous one, this game was very interesting and unpredictable until the end. The first quarter finished with 3 points advantage for Rilski Sportist (23-26), but that was the only quarter won by them. Slavia’s players, threatened to be eliminated after this match, started playing very organized defense and didn’t let the guests control the game, like they did last time. In the second quarter Slavia won with 23-19, and took the lead before the half-time break, if only by one point (46-45).

After the break Slavia had full control of what was happening on the court, limiting Rilski Sportist’s offense. At the same time they organised very wise their attacks and made only 9 turnovers in the whole game. That way they managed to win in both the third and the fourth quarters (19-17; 19-15) and avoided the elimination in this round.

Stefka Nikolova and Lilyana Ilieva had a great game for Slavia, as both of them finished with double-doubles. Nikolova scored 18 points, adding 12 rebounds and 6 assists, while Ilieva finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

For Rilski Sportist this time Hristina Ivanova was the most valuable player with 20 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. Agnesa Doychinova once again was the top scorer for the team. She had 27 points, to which she added 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

FULL STATS FROM THE GAME SLAVIA - RILSKI SPORTIST