32 games - 32 wins for Lukoil Academic

Pero Antic was once again top scorer

15-04-2008 19:40

The game of Lukoil Academic vs Balkan Botevgrad counted for nothing, since both teams already had their final positions in A-1 regular season secured - respectively 1-st and 3-rd. Yet, in front of the crowd at the Sports complex in Pravets they played a good game, which was expectedly won by the hosts - 109-84. What was more important though, it completed an amazing clean sweep of the regular season for Lukoil Academic - 32 wins out of all 32 matches!

The champs got off to a realtively slow start of the game and they only led by 2 midway through the first quarter - 12-10. After the first 10 minutes the scores were at 24-19, but at that point the "scoring machine" Pero Antic had gained momentum, so Lukoil's lead was starting to grow. By the end of the first half the big man was already slamming in alley oops and his team was leading by 17 at half-time - 57-40.

The players of Balkan knew it was over, but they still wanted to show what they could do as well. Especially since it was their last opportunity to play with no pressure on their shoulders before the play-offs. And they did play a great third quarter. They scored triples at will and Bosnian point guard Pavle Boljkovac (with 25 points already to his name) was especially instrumental in bringing Lukoil's lead down to only 7 points. He got help in scoring from young Ivan Lilov, who was deadly from downtown as well, and veteran American forward-center Dwayne Morton.

The favourites though were far from being worried by the 20-30 in the third quarter and a couple of minutes into the the fourth they got going again. They kept Balkan scoreless for 3 minutes, while scoring 11 points themselves, and suddenly their lead was up over 20 points (97-76). Alll that was left for the last 5 minutes of the regualr season for both teams was determining the margin of victory for Lukoil Academic in that last game and waiting to see which player would lead the scoring.

The answer to the latter question was: Pero Antic with 27 points, since during the last 10 minutes of the game Boljkovac added none to the 25 he had amassed in the first 3 quarters. For Lukoil another Macedonian - Riste Stefanov - had 24, including 4 three-pointers. Bulgarian prospect Chavdar Kostov (turning 20 y.o. in 3 days time) came off the bench to hit 3 out of 3 from long distance.

FULL STATS OF THE LUKOIL ACADEMIC - BALKAN BOTEVGRAD GAME

STANDINGS IN MEN FIRST A-1 (FIRST EIGHT)

INDIVIDUAL STATS LEADERS IN MEN FIRST A-1

DOUBLE DOUBLES LEADERS IN MEN FIRST A-1