Rilski Sportist defeat Spartak and tied them in the standing of NBL

Rilski Sportist beat Spartak Pleven

08-04-2009 20:26

The team of Rilski Sportist took an important home win in the battle for third place in the regular season of National Basketball leauge defeating 98-87 Spartak Pleven. Important though could be the difference in points because Rilski needed to win by 15 because now if the teams finish with the same record of wins and losses Spartak will have the advantage.

Rilski Sportist could have easily won by a lot more than the necessary 15 points because the team had leads as large as 20 points. In the second half though Spartak was very close to a comeback but after a good last quarter the players of Aleksandar Todorov have to feel happy that they even won the game because with a little bit more luck Spartak could have claimed the victory. This was first win for Rilski against Spartak in Samokov in the last two years - the last one was on 08.04.2006 and it was followed by five straight losses.

A total of six players scored in double figures for Rilski Sportist. Dragoslav Papic was the top scorer for the team with 24 points. Travis Peterson had another very good game with a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Ivan Lilov had 14 points while 10 apiece had Branko Mirkovic and Bogdan Boev. The captain of the team Aleksandar Gruev had 14 and show good form in the game.

Hrisimir Dimitrov was once again the go-to guy for Spartak Pleven with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. Very good played also Vladimir Marinov who finished with 17 points and 5 assists before fouling out. Vesko Georgiev scored 16 and Rob Preston 10.

In the next round Rilski Sportist will travel to Pravets to play against Lukoil Academic while Spartak well go to Sofia to play against Levski on Sunday.

FULL STATS OF RILSKI SPORTIST - SPARTAK PLEVEN GAME

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