Lukoil Academic avenged their loss versus Levski in the Cup

Hall versus Goldwire

02-04-2009 20:40

Lukoil Academic defeated Levski 82-92 away and practically decided the battle for first place in the regular season in the National Basketball league. In the current standings both teams have 31 points but Lukoil has one win more and two losses less and will have 5 home games from the remaining 7 matches. "The Blues" were hoping to win again today like in the Cup final and then eventually to surprise their opponent in Pravets on 28th this month. Despite leading for most of the game none of this will happen for Levski as the champions won and will have a home court advantage in the playoffs.

One fact to mention is the poor refereeing in this game. The three referees had a very bad game with mistakes in both ways. The turning point in the game was at the end of the third quarter when Lukoil Academic finished the last 1.28 minutes with a 10-0 run to take a 64-68 lead going into the last quarter. In the last minutes despite all attempts from the hosts they couldn't come close enough and eventually lost the game.

Top scorer for Levski was Arnas Kazlauskas with 23 points, Marcus Hall added 21 and Zlatin Georgiev and Pavel Ivanov finished with 11 apiece.

For the visitors from Lukoil Academic Todor Stoykov showed why he is the captain and the leader of this team finishing with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Goldwire added 23 points while Riste Stefanov scored 12.

Levski will have a rest this weekend while Lukoil Academic will host Euroins Cherno More in Pravets on Sunday.

FULL STATS OF THE LEVSKI - LUKOIL ACADEMIC GAME