Blowout win for men's national team against Finland

Filip Videnov in action (FIBAeurope.com)

23-08-2008 22:52

Bulgaria men's national team had a blowout win against Finland in the second qualification game for Eurobasket 2009 in Poland. Pini Gershon's squad crushed their opposition 90-68 after a great performance from the captain Todor Stoykov (28 points) and Deyan Ivanov (24 points and 6 rebounds).

The game started extremely well for our team, as after 3 minutes we were up 7-1. Todor Stoykov was on fire, finishing with 10 points in the first quarter. After a good scouting, the opposition's biggest weapon - 3 point shooting was defended very well by Bulgaria and after 10 minutes, they were 1/8 from beyond the arc.

The second quarter started with an and one play by Dimitar Anguelov for 22-10. After 14 minutes, Bulgaria was leading with 15 points - 32-17. Finland woke up and made the difference just 5 points at halftime - 39-34.

The second half started with a basket by Stoykov, followed by one from Anguelov and one from Stefan Georgiev. After 23 minutes of play Bulgaria was once again up in double digits - 34-46. After 30 minutes of play our team was up 64-53.

In the last quarter Bulgaria played some very good basketball, and only after a few minutes from the closing quarter the only question was how big was the difference going to be.

Stoykov finished with 28 points (3 three-pointers), before leaving under the applause of all the fans. Deyan Ivanov added 24 points (4 three-pointers) and 6 rebounds, despite playing only 24 minutes. Filip Videnov had 12 points, along with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Ibrahim "EB" Jaaber played good also, despite having 5 turnovers and finished with 10 points and 7 boards.

For Finland as expected Hanno Motola scored the most points - 21. Petteri Kopponen was disappointing with only 2 points.

FULL STATS FROM THE GAME FINLAND – BULGARIA

CURRENT STANDING IN GROUP A OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR EUROBASKET 2009

SCHEDULE AND RESULTS FROUM GROUP A OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR EUROBASKET 2009