Biggest win of Round 1 in the Cup goes to Rilski Sportist

No problems for Rilski Sportist in Sofia

06-02-2009 21:59

Rilski Sportist managed the biggest win of the first leg games in the preliminary round of the Cup of Bulgaria. They defeated Slavia 103-51 in Triaditsa Hall in Sofia. Despite playing without their best player Travis Peterson, the team from Samokov showed their better class and won by a 52 point margin. The players of coach Aleksandar Todorov demonstrated very good defense, as they ddn't allow Slavia to score more than 16 points any of the four quarters. On the other side Rilski Sportist had very good percentages from all positions and for the third time this season they reached the century mark (the other two were against CSKA – 100 – and versus Levski – 103).

All Rilski Sportist starters finished in double figures. Branko Mirkovic led them with 21 points, 5 boards and 4 assists. Ivan Lilov added 17 points while the third guard in the starting lineup Aleksandar Gruev ended with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

The home team obviously suffered offensively against the great defense of the visitors and had no easy baskets. They had only 34.7 % for 2 points and 14.3 % for 3 points (only 3 succesful from 14 attepmted shots). Jordan Yankov was their leading scorer with 15 points.

Both teams will play once again this coming Sunday but the outcome of the match is already well known. Rilski Sportist have vitually qualified for the Final Eight where they will face the winner of the Balkan/Yambol tie. Balkan is holds a 19 point advantage after the first leg but the second game will be in Yambol.

After that game with Slavia in Arena Samokov on Sunday, Rilski Sportist has 4 very tough games to play until the end of the month. First they travel to Pleven to face Spartak in the first game from the second phase of the National Basketball League (NBA). Then they visit Fersped Rabotnicki in Skopje on February 13 in the last game of the Eurohold Balkan League group stage, before facing Lukoil Academic in a NBL game in Samokov on February 21. Then, on the last day for the short month of February, they have a game against Levski in Sofia.