Lukoil winning again in dramatic way

Nikolov battle for the ball with Brown(Photo:CSKA)

15-05-2007 20:00

Lukoil Academic recorded another dramatic win over CSKA again by 2 points, 82-80. For second straight game the champions gave up big lead and could have paid for this at the end.
This match started very much like the previous one as Lukoil Academic took quick lead at 8-2 and 14-4. The difference continued to be around 10 points when near the end of the quarter the referees really tried to brake this game calling 3 straight technical fouls, two of which on Carlos Cherry who had to go out of the game. The champions took advantage of that and increased the lead to 16 points and then CSKA managed to score the last basket in the quarter that ended 31-17 as Lamont Jones had 15 points. In the beginning of the second quarter both teams exchanged baskets but then Lukoil stepped up the pace to build a 21 point lead. Then the champions started to play more relaxed and that showed up on the scoreboard as CSKA cut the deficit to only 12 points at the break.
At the start of the third quarter CSKA showed some signs that the team would try to come back in the game but Lukoil Academic responded quickly and had at time the biggest lead in this game – 23 points. However the margin between the teams before the last quarter was 19 points. The start of the last quarter left the impression that the teams waited for the game to finish. With nearly 7 minutes to go Lukoil led 74-55. Then CSKA started to play superbly and after a huge run took the result to 78-77 with 3 minutes to go. Both teams couldn’t score in the next minutes before Donta Smith made 2 free throws with 14 seconds to go. Then Bozov replied with another two and then again Smith was fouled and made both shots from the line. With 3 seconds to go Bozov was fouled, scored the first free throw and missed the second hoping somebody from his teammates to get the rebounds. Unfortunately for CSKA it didn’t happen and lost the second game from the series. However the players of CSKA must be congratuled for their spirit throughout the game battling hard and never giving up despite playing shortheanded after Trevor Harvey was out of this game due to injury and after Carlos Cherry was disqualified.
Donta Smith was the top player in this game with 29 points and 8 rebounds and Todor Stoykov added 23. For CSKA Jordan Bozov finished with game high 21 points.
The third match from this series is Friday in Sofia.