Levski eliminated in Eurohold Balkan League

A week ago everything looked great for the Bulgarian teams in the Eurohold Balkan League, as all of them won their games. But this week only Rilski Sportist survived. Euroins Cherno More and Levski both held 16 points advantages against two Macedonian teams – Fersped Rabotnicki and Feni Industries – but it turned out those differences were not enough to eventually get among the best four teams in 2008/09 edition of Eurohold Balkan League. Last night Euroins Cherno More lost by 20 in Skopje while today Levski was eliminated as well losing by 19 points – 62-81 – in Kavadarci to Macedonian champions Feni Industries.
 

Zlatko Gocevski of Feni Industries and Marcus Hall of Levski scored the first 9 points in the game and after 2.30 minutes Levski were up 5-4. Feni Industries made a 10-3 run mostly thanks to 2 succesful shots behind the 3-point line by their best player Donald Cole. The head coach of Levski Konstantin Papazov reacted  immediately and with 4`23`` to go in the opening quarter took the first time out with his team down 15-7. At the end of the first quarter the Macedonian champs were even up by 9 points – 26-17. They hadn’t missed a shot behind the arc (4 of 4). Cole had 3 of those triples and a total of 11 points in the first quarter. However he was in foul trouble and was benched in the first minutes of the second quarter by the coach Emil Rajkovic.
 

Stefan Georgiev scored two free throws at the beginning of the second ten minutes but Gocevski with a 2 and Marjan Gjurov with a 3-pointer made it 31-19 after only 12 minutes of play. The home team even had a couple of opportunities to increase that advantage and get closer to the 16 – the number of points Bulgarians won by in Sofia week ago. Slaveykov cut it to 31-21 but Cole got into the game again and scored two baskets in a row for 35-21 in the middle of second quarter.
 

Boyko Mladenov came in as a substitute and scored right away for Levski, followed by two consecutive baskets by Marcus Hall to get it down to a single digit margin again – 35-27 with 2.47 before the break. However in the next 2 minutes the home team scored 7 points in a row for 42-27 before Slaveykov hit a jump shot, Gocevski missed two free throws and Charles Jones`s long 3-pointer brought the score to 42-32 at half time.
 

The key player for the Macedonians in those first 20 minutes was their star Donald Cole – 17 points with 7 succesful of 8 attempted field goals shots. On the other end Marcus Hall had 9 points but had also committed 4 turnovers – as much as the whole Feni team during the first half of play.
 

The second half started in a very low scoring mood and the teams managed only 11 points between them in the first five minutes of third quarter. Levski scored only 2 of them while Feni Industries had 9 to bring the score up to 51-34, one point more than their loss in Sofia a week ago. Charles Jones was the one to keep his team in the game with two 3-pointers and 2 free throws until the end of third quarter. However after 30 minutes of play the score was 59-46 and the game was still on the line.
 

It took a minute and a half of the last quarter fo Hall to manage a jumpshot to cut the lead to 59-48. Feni Industries scored their first four points in those minutes from the free throw line – first Gocevski and then Cole for 63-48. However in the next possession for Levski the American forward made his fifth foul of the game and with 6 minutes to go was fouled out. Taliek Brown scored for 71-55 before Zlatin Georgiev cut it to 71-56 with less than 3 minutes before the final whistle. Then it was the time for Gocevski to step up, as he hit 2 three-pointers for 77-58. Stefan Georgiev nailed two free throws but Taliek Brown made it 79-60 with 94 seconds to go. Slaveykov scored a running jumpshot for 79-62 but Samardziev`s successful shot made the final score 81-62 for the Macedonians.
 

Zlatko Gocevski finished with a game high 27 points and 5 rebounds while Donald Cole managed 24 points before fouling out. The back court duo Taliek Brown and Goran Samardziev added 11 and 9 points apiece for the winners.
 

Marcus Hall scored 17 points for the visitors but also turned the ball over 8 times. Charles Jones and Stefan Georgiev added 12 and 10 points respectively and both were 1 rebound shy of double double performances.
 

Levski outrebounded Feni Industries 34-23 but also made 19 costly turnovers versus only 8 for the home side.
 

The Final Four in the Eurohold Balkan League is set for March 24 and 25. Rilski Sportist and Feni Industries will play in one of the semifinals while in the other Fersped Rabotnicki will face the winner of the Serbian match-up that will start this coming Friday – Mega Hypo Leasing versus Swisslion Takovo.