Overgas beaten by Dunav 2007 in dramatic fashion

Ivaylo Kasabov with 32 pts for Dunav 2007

07-12-2008 22:16

Dunav 2007 managed a miraculous come-back from 24 points down to defeat Overgas 87-86 tonight in Ruse. The home team victory was actually expected, but no one could have predicted what Rosen Barchovski's players would have to go through, before they could celebrate as winners of this Division A tie. The former Bulgarian national team coach was less than impressed with his players, when they conceded 31 points in the first quarter and 25 in the third to trail by 20 at the start of the fourth.

The talanted young players of Overgas had grown in confidence immensely within those opening 32 minutes of the game, before they were brought down to earth in the last 8. That was when they led 53-77, but had too many players in foul trouble with 5 of them eventually ejected. The total of 30 team fouls by Overgas meant the Dunav 2007 were regular visitors of the charity stripe tonight, but what they did there during most of the game was true charity - they missed too many free throw attempts until that fabulous last quarter. During that the hosts started hitting the target on a regular basis not only from that line, but from everywhere and, most importantly, shut out their opponents' offense. From the 32-nd till the 37-th minute of the game Dunav 2007 had a run of 21-3 to cut their deficit to just 6 points - 74-80. Then they led 83-82 with less than a minute to go and twice traded successful visits at the free throw line to hold on to that slender 1 point lead until the final buzzer.

The main man for the home team tonight was 19 year old Ivaylo Kasabov, who scored a total of 32 points. He had 26 of his team's whopping 43 free throw attempts and had missed 9 out of his first 22, before going 4/4 when it mattered most - in those deciding final 20 seconds of the game.

Kaloyan Kostov and Vladimir "Fifty" Nikolov returned after missing Dunav 2007's previous game with injuries, scoring respectively 16 and 13. Nikolov also grabbed 8 rebounds and had an important block in the closing minute.

Another player returning from a one game absence - point guard Ventsislav Petkov - was the top scorer for Overgas yet again. He had 18 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, before he had to leave for accumulating 5 personal fouls. Three other Overgas players totalled 16 points each - Petyo Ivanov, Ivaylo Vasilev and Mihail Tanev.

Dunav 2007 are now up to 3rd in the Division A standings with a record of 4-3 and will be looking for a 3-rd win in a row, when they travel to play Beroe next week. Overgas is tied for 5th in the table with a couple of other teams at 3-4. They have an away game next as well and are favourites to beat Sportist Svoge in what is their last fixture of 2008.

FULL STATS OF THE DUNAV 2007 - OVERGAS GAME