Thrilling win for Rilski Sportist in Eurohold BIBL opener

A fantastic three-pointer with the buzzer by Aleksandar Gruev won the game for Bulgarians Rilski Sportist Samokov at the start of the newly founded Eurohold Balkan League. They were trailing by 2 points to Serbs Mega Hypo Leasing with just 4 seconds to go, but Gruev got the ball inside his own half of the court, dribbled his way through to about 9 meters to the opponents` basket and had a last ditch attempt. All the spectators in Arena Samokov watched on in amazement as the ball flew towards the hoop and went in, giving the home team a 97-96 victory.
 
Just two minutes before the end of extra time it all seemed over and done with, as the visiting Mega Hypo Leasing Belgrade had a comfortable 10 point lead (82-92). It turned out to be not quite enough though. Despite having lost their two leading scorers in the game - Dragoslav Papic and Travis Peterson - the Bulgarian team didn`t surrender and capitalized on a few errors and some poor free throw shooting by the visitors to achieve the incredible victory.
 
All the drama happened in the extra 5 minutes, after the two teams couldn`t beat each other in regulation time, finishing it all square - 81-81.
 
 
The first half of the game was dominated by the Serbs, who led the scores through most of it. They had a 2-9 advantage after the first couple of minutes, but an 11-2 run gave the team wrom Samokov their first lead in the game with 4'30'' to go to the end of the first qarter. The lead changed hands a few times and after those first 10 minutes Mega Hypo Leasing were in front by just 1 point (19-20), after Rilski Sportist`s new acquisition Ivan Lilov scored with the buzzer to cut their lead.
 
In the beginning of the second quarter, thanks to some good play by Mega Hypo Leasing guard Stefan Stojacic and a few three pointers by his teammates, the visiting team`s adavantage reached 9 points - 25-34 in the 14-th minute of the game. That was actually as high as their adavantage would get throughout the whole game. Rilski Sportist managed to bring it down to just 5 points (35-40) at half-time and they had to thank their young American center Travis Peterson. The Bulgarians could have been even closer to their opponents, if they had been more precise from the charity stripe - they scored just 9 out of 15 in first 20 minutes.
 
Travis Peterson led the scoring in the game with 12 points at half-time, his teammate Papic had 8, while Lilov had notched up 6 six points. For the team from Belgrade the best scorers at that point were Stojacic with 9 points and center Uros Nikolic with 7.
 
The third period wasn`t mush different to the first two - every time the Serbs built a lead of 6-7 points, the Bulgarians reacted and brough it down to 2-3. Thus the two team entered the last quarter with the scores at 57-60 in favour of Mega Hypo Leasing.
 
At the very beginninh of that last period though Travis Peterson got into foul trouble, committing his 4-th, and coach Aleksandar Todorov had to take him out for a while. The visitors took advantage and scored 8 unanswered points to lead by 9 once again - 59-68. The Macedonian coach of the Bulgarian team had yet another puzzle to solve, when he was left without his starting power forward too, as Dragoslav Papic was disqualified. The young Serb got into a fight with compatriot Miroslav Markovic of the visiting team and the referees took both of them out of the game.
 
Thus Peterson had to come back in the game, replacing Papic, and the American managed to stay in it almost until the end of the regular 40 minutes. His 5-th personal foul came 1'11'' before the final buzzer, but the two teams were now level at 79-79. They scored one more basket each to bring the inaugural BIBL game into extra time. Lilov had the last shot in regular time but his attempt for a three didn`t hit the target.
 
Stojacic and Katnic lead their team towards what looked like a certain win, scoring the opening 9 points for Mega Hypo Leasing in the overtime. With 2'13'' it seemed the visitors had it wrapped up, leading by 10. But then they lost their concentration and Rilski Sportist grasped at the opportunity. The hosts battled bravely to come back and in the end that lucky shot by Gruev was a just reward for their perseverance.
 
Branko Mirkovic was the one that after all had the most points for the winning team - 19. Peterson fell a single rebound short of a double double - 17 pts and 19 rbs. Papic had 17 points as well, before he was ousted in the 33-rd minute.
 
Stefan Stojacic finished the game in Samokov as the best scorer with his 25 points. American Chris Schlatter had 10 for the visitors, while Uros Nikolic had a double double with 12 pts and 15 rbs.
 
Tomorrow the next three games of the Eurohold Balkan League, are set to take place. Then, on thursday, another Bulgarian team - Levski - will play host to Mega Hypo Leasing too.

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FULL STATS OF THE RILSKI SPORTIST - MEGA HYPO LEASING GAME