Spartak Pleven back at second place

Pleven's team is second again (spartak-basket

29-11-2008 20:37

24 hours after Levski defeated Yambol, Spartak Pleven returned to second place in National Basketball League after winning away against Rilski Sportist 78-68. This was the last game from the 8th round and now the players of head coach Darin Velikov are tied for second place with Levski. Both teams have 6 wins and 2 losses and meet next saturday in Sofia.

The visitors started better the game and took the lead. It went up to 6 after Marinov scored with 30 seconds to go in the first quarter but a triple by Peterson made it 18-21 after ten minutes.

Only for a minute and a half in the second quarter the guests went up by 8 points before Papic scored for the hosts. With 6 minutes and 40 seconds to play in the half after Hrisi Dimitrov scored Spartak took a double digit lead for first time, 22-33. Three minutes later they were up 32-41 but the hosts scored the next six points to make it 38-41 at the break.

Rob Preston scored the first basket of the second half but two three-pointers by Ivan Lilov and Bogdan Boev allowed Rilski Sportist to take the lead. Then there were minutes when both teams were exchanging leads. Then Rilski Sportist made an 8-0 run to make it 56-49 with 3.42 to go in the third quarter. In those final minutes it was Spartak's turn to make a run as the team scored 11 unanswered points for 56-60 after three.

In the last quarter there was a lot of pressure for both teams. The hosts cut it to a single point a lot if times but couldn't take a lead. With 5.14 to go Peterson scored to make it 64-68 but from then on the hosts scored only 4 points, none in the last two and a half minutes. By this win Spartak took revenge for their loss in the first round in Pleven.

The top scorer in this game was Travis Peterson with 27 points. He added also 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. Leven Belberov was the only other player for the hosts to score in double digits with 10 points. Ivan Lilov came back after injury and finished with 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Of course Rilski Sportist is still missing their captain and main guard Aleksandar Gruev due to injury.

The captain of Spartak Hrisimir Dimitrov finished with double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds. Sasha Topchov added 12 and 8.

In the next round Spartak Pleven will visit Levski in Sofia while Rilski Sportist will play in Pravets on friday against Lukoil Academic.

FULL STATS OF RILSKI SPORTIST - SPARTAK PLEVEN GAME

MORE NEWS