A thrilling win for Rilski Sportist takes them to the final

The first semifinal of the Eurohold Balkan League was expected to be close, but hosts Rilski Sportist and Serbs Mega Hypo Leasing made it a real thriller. In fact - yet another thriller in the battles between those two, as both their encounters in Group B of the regular season had been won by Rilski Sportist by just one point. Now they were the lucky winners again, this time by 2 points - 83-81. But this time the victory was much more important as a place in the final was at stake.

Rilski Sportist opened the game with Travis Peterson`s hook shot for a 2-0 lead and then kept themselves in front by a 2 or 3-point margin for the first 6 minutes. As expected, Travis Peterson was being the main threat for Mega`s basket with 6 points in those opening minutes. Bogdan Boev`s second trey of the game enhanced the home team`s advantage to 5 points though (14-9) and then the lane drives of their back-court duo Ivan Lilov and Aleksandar Gruev made it even bigger (20-11). But Mega Hypo Leasing reacted and brought it back to 20-16 on a triple by Strahinja Dragicevic, who was playing great and keeping his team in the game. The first quarter ended at 23-18.
 
At the start of the second Mega HL tightened their defence and quickly turned the game around - 23-24 after just 2 minutes of play in the second quarter. Then the teams traded 1-point leads for a while, before Dragoslav Papic nailed a triple for 30-26 and now he and Boev each had 7 points in the bag for the Final Four hosts. It was now Rilski Sportist`s turn to show nice defence and deliver on the break, which helped them extend their lead to 9 points - 39-30 with less than 4 minutes to go to the break. Stefan Stojacic and Boev scored three-pointers to keep the margin at 9, but another good run by the Serbian team and its captain Dragicevic brought it down to just 2 with 35 seconds left on the half-time clock - 44-42. Mirkovic`s trey and Uros Nikolic`s tap in with the buzzer meant their teams retired to the lockers for the break with the scores at 47-44.
 
At half-time Boev and Peterson led the scoring for the Bulgarian team with 12 and 10 points respectively, but Strahinja Dragicevic was the man to watch - he already had 17 under his belt.
 
At the start of the second half Dragicevic continued from where he had left off in the first, scoring twice for another turn-around - 47-48. But Boev and Lilov`s good three-point shooting kept their team in front at 54-50 and then 59-51 at the mid point of the third quarter. Then Boev netted his 5th triple of the game to make it an 8-0 run by Rilski Sportist and a double digit lead for them - 62-51. In the next few minutes the game was even and Rilski`s lead remained at 10-12 points. Then it was Dragicevic yet again, who inspired another come-back for his team - a 0-7 run 69-64. But Lilov was burning hot too, as he netted 11 points in that third quarter alone and made sure the home team still had a small, but important lead - 71-65 at the start of the last 10-minute period.
 
In the very first minute of that one though Lilov comitted his 4th foul and was benched. On the other hand, Peterson came back on the court to make use of the absence of Meha HL starting center Nikolic, who was also in foul trouble. The American soon ignited the home crowd with a two-handed dunk and proceeded to score the next 3 baskets for Rilski (the last of them a running dunk) to make it an 8-0 run for himself and an 81-75 lead for his team. But a quick 0-6 run by the visitors in just over a minute tied the scores again at 81-81. Then it was just a question of who would have a bit more luck and stronger nerves. And the answer was - Rilski Sportist. After a few failed attempts at a game-winner by both teams, Travis Peterson`s scored what turned out to be just that. His 5th consecutive basket for the hosts made it 83-81 with more than a minute to go, he followed it up with an all-important defensive rebound with 37 seconds left and then Mega HL weren`t even able to commit a tactical fould to stop the clock. It ran out and the players and fans of Rilski Sportist celebrated the victory, which meant they would play in the final of their first ever international competition.
 
With his great last quarter performance Travis Peterson finished the game as the top scorer for the hosts with 24 points, as he also grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out 5 assists. The third quarter spurt by Ivan Lilov contributed most of his 17 point total, while Bogdan Boev registered 18.
 
Strahinja Dragicevic`s 28 points were not enough for a victory at the end, but he was definitely the man of the game, adding also 14 rebounds and 3 steals. Uros Nikolic finished with a double-double too - 10 points and 12 rebounds. Point guard Dusan Katnic had 18 points and 5 assists, but also 5 turnovers.