Cherno More defeated Spartak in Pleven

Santos was instrumental for his team's win

12-12-2008 20:11

In a battle for third place in the National Basketball League standings visitors Euroins Cherno More were better than Spartak in Pleven - 81-86. Prior to the game the two teams were tied at 6-3 and after their win Cherno More even went up to second in the table, but only until Sunday, when Levski visit Rilski Sportist.

Spartak Pleven made a good start with their key man Hrisimir Dimitrov netting the opening 5 points for a lead of 5-0 after 2 minutes of play. Then the visitors started scoring too, but it was only enough for keeping them in touch at that 5-point margin, until Spartak managed to increase it to 8 at the end of the first period - 18-10.

In the second quarter though Cherno More started playing much better defense, concentrating it on the only person their opponents relied upon for scoring - Hrisimir Dimitrov. Also, the Varna team found their range from behind the arc - triples by Simeon Tsenov (for 19-15) and talanted youngster Aleksandar Yanev (23-22) were followed by a Zeljko Bojovic one that tied it at 25-25. When Yanev scored his second three-pointer his team already led by 6. However Spartak managed to go out of that slump, thanks yet again to their captain Hrisimir Dimitrov, who had 16 points and that was almost half of his team's tally at the break (34-36).

Cherno More point guard Corey McIntosh had only 4 points in all of the first half, but hit 8 of his team's opening 11 of the second and the visitors led 41-47. Spartak tied it at 49-49 but never managed to lead again and was trailing by 6 again at the end of the third quarter - 54-60.

In the fourth the hosts were starting to tire and their defence was fading, which allowed Cherno More to score at will. The visitors' advantage reached 12 points mid quarter, as their Brazilian center Atila Santos was having a superb second half of scoring and rebounding.

At 72-84 with two minutes to go it looked all over, but the home team was determined to show it wasn't. Some failed offensive moves by Cherno More and three consecutive triples in just 45 seconds by Spartak (two by Rob Preston and one by Rosen Sofroniev) made for a very interesting closing minute. But then Hrisimir Dimitrov failed to cut the 3-point margin to just 1, while Santos wasn't as charitable towards his opponents and hit both free throws, when he was fouled with 18'' to go, to finally wrap it up at 81-86.

Spartak's leader Dimitrov had 11 points in the second half of the game for a total of 27. He also grabbed 7 rebounds and had three steals. Former Akron Zips player Rob Preston had 4 three-pointers and 13 points, while Sasa Topchov added 14 and 7 boards, but also committed 7 turnovers.

Atila Santos notched up 22 pts and 13 rbs for Euroins Cherno More's victory, Corey McIntosh netted 14 and Serb Zeljko Bojovic 17. The latter hit the target from three-point range 4 times as well.