Rilski Sportist with important win


Rilski Sportist with important win
Gruev attacks (Photo: BulgarianBasket.com)
20-10-2009 19:56

Rilski Sportist took a precious win in the last game of the first round of Men NBL after overcoming Spartak Pleven at home in a low scoring game 66-62. Both teams who are participating in the Balkan league and lost their opening games in the competition and were looking now to get the first win of the new season. After lots of turnarounds at the end the hosts were the ones celebrating and they had their first victory in the new campaign.

The start of the game was very nervous and it continued that way until the halftime break. After the first four minutes the score was 3-3 after a triple by Aleksandar Gruev for the hosts and basket by Kennerly and free throw of Iliya Stankov for the visitors. The first quarter finished 14-12 for Spartak as in the second nothing changed. The teams continued to struggle to find the basket and a Gruev triple at the buzzer made the score 23-22 for the hosts after 20 minutes.

In the third quarter the game was still very close as none of the teams was able to pull away with more than 3 points advantage. Rilski Sportist then took a 41-37 lead but Spartak scored two straight 3-pointers to close out the quarter with a 2-point lead.

In the last quarter Spartak was leading for most of the time and was ahead 50-55 when Simeon Naydenov scored a free throw then the captain Gruev scored 5 straight points and Rilski regained the advantage with 3.18 minutes to play. Then the lead was exchanged four times and when the score was 61-60, Bogdan Boev scored a free throw, then missed the second but Travis Peterson managed to put it in the basket and Rilski Sportist practically secured the win with 15 seconds to play.

The captain Gruev was the top scorer for the winners with 17 points, including 5 three-pointers. He added also 4 assists and 3 rebounds. Zivkovic finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for his first double double and Boev with 11 and 5.

For Spartak best player in the game was Hrisimir Dimitrov with 21 points and 11 rebounds as Joe Kennerly added 11 points and 7 rebounds.

FULL STATS FROM THE RILSKI SPORTIST - SPARTAK PLEVEN GAME
 

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