Ironi Rain Nahariya leads all the way to finish in 3rd place

The hosts of the Final 4 of Delasport Balkan League – Ironi Rain Nahariya, finished third in this season’s competition. In the bronze medals game, they defeated BC Balkan 86-65 after leading for the whole game. Once they were able to pull away, the hosts controlled the score and the game and eventually managed to take the victory. Balkan on the other side wasn’t able to show its best for a second match in a row and surely finished the competition with a disappointment.

It was a slow start for both teams as the hosts were the first to pull away thanks to a 6-0 run which put them up by 8 points. Balkan did try to close the deficit but couldn’t do so and after ten minutes the margin was 9. Early in the second quarter we saw the first double-digit advantage after a Branch triple, but Balkan finally was able to respond. With 6 points in a row, they cut the deficit and later they were able to close the gap to even four points. The home side once again pulled away to take a 9-point lead but the last basket of the first half came for the Bulgarian team as after 20 minutes Ironi led by 7 points.

The hosts started very good the second half and were able to go up by 15 points. After that they managed to keep a good advantage which after 30 minutes was at 11. At the start of the fourth quarter Balkan hit a triple but the hosts answered back with a 10-0 run which took the lead to 18 points and practically decided the outcome.

Stephaun Branch led the winners with a good all-around game finishing with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Dustin Thomas had 16 points as Alexey Chubrevich added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Christian Jones was the top performer for Balkan with 14 points and 9 rebounds while the only other player in double figures was Dimitar Dimitrov who had 11 and 8.

BOXSCORE