Unbelievable comeback, Levski took 1-0 lead for bronze

Radionov with season high

15-05-2008 22:50

Spartak Pleven made something rarely seen today, as in Triadica Hall in Sofia they lost against Levski 60-67. Somebody will say “So what, they lost to a team which beat them everytime they faced them this season”. Well yes, but at halftime Pleven was ahead with 24 points. Yes, they aren’t that good away from home, but when you are leading against a team who scored 18 points in the first half, that really is an answer to all of Darin Velikov’s questions.

In the first half Levski was still going through the shock from the semifinal series against Balkan. The blues played their worst 20 minutes this season, and scored only 18 points. The good thing is that Pini Gershon left earlier and didn’t had to be disappointed by a dousin of national players in Levski – Radionov and Velikov had 5 points each, Veselinov had 4, and Georgiev and Slaveykov had 2 each. Levski was shooting 2/15 for 3 points and 4/13 for 2 points. They had 12 rebounds agaisnt 22 for Spartak. Hrisimir Dimitrov and Sasha Topcov had 13 and 10 points, 23 total against 18 for Levski.

In the second half both teams seemed to have changed their jerseys because the third quarter will surely go in the history of bulgarian basketball, as Spartak scored only 3 points (1 for Dimitrov, and 2 for Jojic). Levski, thanks to Velikov, Stefan Georgiev and Yulian Radionov made a 16-0 run for 34-42 before Hrisi scored his free-throw 4:18 before the end of the third. After 30 minutes Spartak was leading with only 4 points – 41-45.

4 minutes before the end of the game the score was tied at 50-50 after a basket by Slaveikov. 3:14 minutes before the final buzzer Stefan Georgiev put his team ahead – 52-50. A minute later the difference was 6 points – 56-50 after a basket by Radionov, but in the last minute Spartak made an attempt to go back in the game. Bozo Barac scored a three-pointer with 26 seconds remaining and it was 56-55 for Levski. In the final seconds the blues who had trouble from the free-throw line scored all of their 4 free throws and closed the game at 60-57.

This was win number 5 for Levski against Spartak Pleven this season, and Darin Velikov’s players don’t know what it is to beat Levski since february last year.

Slaveykov and Radionov both had 16 points, as that was a personal high for Yuli this season. Radionov was the only player who came in from Levski’s bench and scored points.
Stefan Georgiev had his seventh double-double this year – 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Veselinov had 11 rebounds, even though he was shooting 0/9.

For Spartak Dimitrov and Topchov had double-doubles – Hrisi with 18 points nad 11 boards, and Sasha with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

FULL STATS FROM THE GAME LEVSKI - SPARTAK PLEVEN

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