The Lions and Mega HL both win in Serbia prior to the second leg

One of the two Serbian teams contesting the last slot in the Final Four of the Eurohold Balkan League - Swisslion Takovo - is continuing its roll of domestic victories. Although the Lions had secured their first place in the Basketball League of Serbia quite a while ago, at the weekend they won another game and improved their record to 21-3, going even further ahead of second placed Borac (now 5 games difference).
 
The away victory was against non other than fellow BIBL competitors Radnicki 034 Group, by 67-74. While for the Lions it was just for prestige, just one more piece of evidence of their dominance, for Radnicki the game was crucial for maintaining at least those slim chances they had for the third place and the "ticket" for the Serbian Superleague. Unfortunately for the Kragujevac team, they played a poor first half in front of their own fans and by the end of that already trailed by a double digit margin - 25-37. After the break they tried a come-back cutting their deficit to 6 points (46-52) in the third quarter. But the Lions proved too strong and held on in the last quarter to win by 7.
 
As usually, the Swisslion Takovo players spread their points evenly among themselves in another great team effort. All 9 that appeared on the court had at least 4 points, with Sasa Ocokoljic scoring the most - 15. Radovan Markovic and center Milos Marjanovic finished with 10 points each, while the other center - Dusan Knezevic - was great on the boards with 13 rebounds. Radnicki once again relied mostly on their regular top scorer - Rajko Kljajevic. He lead the scorers in the game with 24 points, but that was not enough for the hosts to earn the victory.
 
Swisslion Takovo`s opponent in the quarterfinals of the Balkan League - Mega Hypo Leasing - was also victorious in its Serbian league game, just 2 days before that second leg clash in the BIBL. The young team from Belgrade expectedly thrashed the tail-enders of the league - Zdravlje Leskovac - at home by 111-90. It was a steady performance by Mega HL, who led all the time from the 3rd minute on and gradually increased their lead. They didn`t even ease off in the last quarter, which they entered with a 14-point lead and made it a more convincing 21-point margin at the end. No less than 6 Mega HL players reached double figures in scoring -  Dusan Cvetkovic (17 pts), Dusan Katnic (15), Vladimir Jankovic and Uros Nikolic (13 apiece), Stefan Stojacic and Strahinja Dragicevic (12 apiece). Nikola Maravic joined Jankovic and Nikolic in their rebounding effort with 7 boards each.