Hattrick of wins for Levski over Lukoil Academic

Lukoil Academic once again beaten by Levski

28-04-2009 19:46

The team of Levski finished its regular season with a dramatic win in Pravets against the champion Lukoil Academic and once again showed that the playoffs will be very interesting this year. Despite the fact that the game wasn't important for the standings it had a lot to offer and desire from both teams to prove who the stronger one is before the playoffs. It was a mad game with a lot of ties, turnarounds and at the end the luck was with Levski - a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Asen Velikov gave "The Blues" the win 82-84.

This was a third success for Levski against recently unbeatable Lukoil Academic and all successes came against three different coaches - Lubomir Minchev, Petko Marinov in the Cup final, and now Georgi Mladenov. This once again proved one thing - that to change the coach so often is not a thing that will resolve the problems in Lukoil who is now not more the hot favourite to defend the title. In fact exactly the permament shifting, mostly of the players who are coming to the team is one of the points that hasn't gone well this season. Even the hiring of Petko Marinov, a proven specialist, and now Georgi Mladenov couldn't change the things on the court and give back the reputaion of an unbeaten team in Bulgaria. In the final minute of the game Lukoil took the lead at 80-78 when Riste Stefanov scored a three-pointer. Then Stefan Georgiev scored a basket and one free throw to give the lead back to Levski. Willie Deane took the responsability for Lukoil and missed a difficult shot but managed to grab the rebound in the air and to take a shot and make it in the same time with 7 seconds to go. Then the players of Levski organized an attack as Charles Jones found Asen Velikov alone and the guard drained a three-pointer in the final second to give his team this important win before the end of the regular season.

Velikov finished with 6 points this game but the real hero was Stefan Georgiev who was like a lion under the basket. He finished with 26 points, 12 rebounds and 2 assists. Marcus Hall was the only other player for the visitors to score in double digits with 17 points. He also had 4 assists.

For Lukoil Academic Willie Deane had 23 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Todor Stoykov and Riste Stefanov scored 3 three-pointers apiece to finish with 16 and 13 points respectively with Stoykov grabbing also 7 rebounds. This was the final game for Levski of the regular season while Lukoil Academic will travel to Varna to meet Euroins Cherno More on Saturday.

FULL STATS FROM THE LUKOIL ACADEMIC - LEVSKI GAME