Rilski Sportist finished third in EUROHOLD Balkan League

The hosts of the Final 4 finished third in EUROHOLD Balkan League. The team of Rilski Sportist managed to defeat KK Kumanovo 2009 85-77 and took the bronze medals. This was third win for Rilski over that opponent this season and this time it was worth a medal. Both teams played an interesting game that was decided in the final moments of the last quarter.
Kumanovo had a better start to the game and after an 8-0 run took a 10-2 lead. In the next minutes the team managed to hold on to its lead but Rilski finished the first quarter 9-2 and closed the gap to just a points.
The second quarter started with a basket for the home team and it was their first lead of the match. In the next minutes both teams exchanged baskets and at one point Kumanovo managed to go up by 4 points. However Rilski responded with 10-0 run and took a 6-point advantage. The visitors came as close as 3 but the hosts scored the last 5 of the first half and led 47-39 after 20 minutes.
The hosts held on to their lead in the third quarter but they couldn′t reach a double digit advantage. The biggest was 8 points as it happened a few times but after the end of the quarter Rilski led only by 4, 63-59.  In the last ten minutes the hosts did hold on to their advantage. With three to go they went up by 10 points but Kumanovo scored 5 in a row and had an offense to reduce further the gap. However they missed and in the end Rilski celebrated in front of their home fans.
Hristo Zahariev had a great game for the winners with 25 points and 6 rebounds. Terry Smith and Branko Mirkovic also played well and scored 14 points apiece with Mirkovic dishing out 10 assists as well.
For Kumanovo Uros Lukovic was the top scorer with 23 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Anthony Lee-Ingram had 22 points and 12 rebounds and Marjan Mladenovic scored 10 points.