Levski ends the two-year winning run of Lukoil Academic

Vasil Evtimov vs Kenny Adeleke

14-11-2008 21:17

Eurohold BIBL participant Levski shocked Bulgarian champions Lukoil Academic tonight, becoming the first team to beat them in domestic competition in over 2 years. The last time Lukoil had lost to another Bulgarian team was on 28 October 2006. But it was Levski who ended that run with an incredible 105-100 defeat.

Levski even led by as much as 25 points midway through the second quarter, threatening to completely humiliate the pre-match favorites. The Blues had used a 14 point run to build a substantial lead in the very first period, which had ended at 31-15. The Lukoil players seemed to have forgotten Levski was the only team in Bulgaria that took a game versus Lukoil to extra time last season, although they had eventually got away with that one. But not this time around. They were not concentrated enough during most of the first half and the 18-point deficit from it(64-46) proved too much for them to recover in the second.

The champs also suffered from the apparant lack of chemistry (yet) between their brand new point guard Kevin Kruger and his teammates of only 4 days. With the jetlag and all, it was no wonder he initially struggled to fit into the scheme and into the flow of the game. He actually never showed any significant quarterbacking skills (not in that particular game at least), but he made a great recovery from some turnovers in the opening minutes to score 5 three-pointers and finished with a game high total of 23 points.

It was mainly the efforts of Kruger and center Kenny Adeleke that brought Lukoil close to a complete come-back in the second half. After the third quarter they had trimmed Levski`s lead down to 11 points - 81-70. Then in the fourth they brought it down to just 3 with under 4 minutes to go - 88-85. The champions were playing much better defensively throughout that second half, but compromised that with too many hasty long range efforts, most of which missed the target. With just a minute to go, Levski guard Marcus Hall drove to the basket for a lay-up to make it 95-88 and thus finally decide the outcome of the game. After that, the tactical fouls by Lukoil didn`t bother Titi Papazov`s players too much, as they hit most of their free throws to win by 5 points.

Hall and forward Stanislav Slaveykov had the most points for Levski`s victory - 22 each. Substitute point guard Asen Velikov scored 19, including an incredible 3-point shot from his own half with the half-time buzzer.

Adeleke added 18 points to Kruger`s 23 for Lukoil. The Nigerian-American big man also grabbed 14 rebounds.

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