Levski secured a place in the first four

Levski is back at second place (gong.bg)

07-01-2008 22:06 | Александър Сотиров

Levski smashed Cherno More Eurohold in the second half of today's game in Triaditsa Hall and after winning the contest 104-90, they achieved their 11th win in Men A-1. In the second half Lubomir Minchev's boys scored 60 points, and after this win they came back on the second position in the ranking of A-1, and secured their place in the first 4 teams, which is an advantage for the draw of the Cup of Bulgaria. The first four teams from A-1 skip the preliminary round, and have advantage of playing at home in the quarterfinals round. The biggest plus is that Lukoil Academic can probably be drawn only for the final.

Cherno More's chance to get into the first four teams are minimal. They played horrible defense, and that was the difference today.

The game started better for the hosts, and after 1 minute of play they were leading 7-3. In the next 3 minutes, Cherno More scored 14 consecutive points for 7-17 at the 5th minute. Plamen Aleksiev was on fire, as he scored three treys in a row, and Leven Belverov added one, before Lubomir Minchev called a time-out. Two times the difference was 13 points for Cherno More, and the first quarter finished 21-29.

Cherno More scored the first two baskets in the second quarter and once again led with more than 10 points (21-33) after just 15 seconds of play. In the next 5 minutes and a half it was Levski's turn to get hot. They scored 16 consecutive points (7 for Stanislav Slaveykov, 4 for Tsvetelin Ivanov, 3 for Nikolay Varbanov and 2 for Zlatin Georgiev) and in the 15th minute they were already leading the score by 4 (37-33). At halftime the score was 44-45 for Cherno More.

Until the 27th minute of the game it was all tied (61-61), but then Asen Velikov (8 points in a row) and a three-pointer by Rostislav Dikov the "Blues" lead it 104-90.

In the last quarter besides Velikov and Dikov, Zlatin Georgiev played good. The first two with 3's, and the last one with few consecutive baskets and a little more than 2 minutes until the end of regulation, the difference was 18 points for Levski - 100-82. In the end Triaditsa exploded after a sick one-handed tommahawk jam by Rob Preston. The final score was 104-90.

Slaveykov was tonight's MVP with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists, being 2 passes away from a triple-double. Velikov had 17 points, including 5 three-pointers, Rob Preston had 12 points, and Zlatin and Stefan Georgiev's both had 14.

Levski made 12 out f 26 attempts from three-point territory (46%), as 9 of those were made by the team's substitute players. Besides that they were unstoppable in the paint - 32 rebounds, against just 17 for Varna.

For the guest team a great game for Belberov (26 points, 5 boards and 4 assists) and Aleksiev - 15 points, after shooting 5/6 for 3 points and 6 assists.

FULL STATS FROM THE GAME LEVSKI - CHERNO MORE

CURRENT STANDING OF MEN FIRST A-1

INDIVIDUAL STATS OF LEVSKI

INDIVIDUAL STATS OF CHERNO MORE

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