Lukoil Academic took off with a win

26-04-2008 20:44 | Александър Сотиров

Lukoil Academic started with a win this year's journey in the Bulgarian playoffs, after an easy win over Rilski Sportist - 109-70.

From the begining of the game, the Students took control of the game, and at the 8th minute they were leading 22-7, and after 14 minutes their lead was 20 - 38-18. At halftime, the score was 54-41, and in the second half the few spectators in the hall were praying that the game finishes faster, so they could get to Botevgrad for the end of Balkan - CSKA.

For the home side, the only player who did not participate in today's game was Chavdar Kostov. Nenad Canak was the best for Lukoil, scoring 18 points and adding 6 assists and 5 rebounds for a rating of 26.

Pero Antic achieved his 12th double-double in the championship this season - 16 points and 10 rebounds. Willie Deane had a good day too, with rating of 24 - 22 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Todor Stoykov finished with 19 points (16 in the first half) and 4 rebounds in 22 minutes on the floor.

Rilski Sportist played without their new star - the Dominican Santos Martinez, who left for personal reasons. Martn Marinov scored 5 three-pointers, for a total of 17 points, after he started a game for the fourth time this season.

Momchil Petrov added 12 points, but all of them were in the first half. Branko Mirkovic finished with 16 points, but he also had 7 turnovers.

The second game from the series is two days from now in Samokov. Lukoil needs a win to go through to the semifinals, where they should face the winner of Cherno More and Spartak Pleven.