Another victory for Feni in the FYROM

One of the two Macedonian teams that have qualified for the Final Four of the Eurohold Balkan League - Feni Industries - was successful at the weekend in its domestic league fixture, despite a shaky start. The Macedonian champion, whose mission is to keep the top spot in the reagular season, defeated MZT Skopje in Round 2 of the 2nd phase of the league (i.e. Superleague) by 90-69.
 
At its home court in Kavadarci Feni Industries played a surprisingly poor first quarter. In the 4th minute of the game, after a bunch of misses and turnovers, they were already trailing 3-11. The visitors even led 9-22 after 7 minutes of action. MZT Skopje though couldn`t sustain that kind of performance much longer, athough they were still ahead by 20-26 at the end of the first quarter. In the second Feni pushed even harder, especially in defense and were able to get the scores back to level by the 18th minute - 35-35. Yet, at half-tme MZT Skopje were in front once again, although by a slender 2-point margin - 37-39.
 
Feni started the second half with a nice 9-3 run, with Donald Cole netting ?ll of those 9 points. An early time-out didn`t help the visitors, as the Kavadarci team took the rest of the 3rd quarter by 20-7 to lead 66-49 at the start of the 4th. With the game already decided, Feni didn`t need to put too much effort into the last 10 minute frame, but still added 4 more points to their advantage.
 
Of course, Donald Cole was the main man for the winners again, with a double-double - 27 points and 10 rebounds. For MZT the only one who played well throughout was Darko Sokolov - the former Feni guard with 5 BIBL games under his belt this season. He scored 13 of his team`s 20 points in the final quarter, but that was too little too late.
 
It`s important to note that Feni coach Emil Rajkovic rotated his roster quite a bit in the MZT game, with the team expected to challenge for three titles - in the Macedonian League and Cup, as well as the BIBL. As already reported, in the latter they face compatriots Fersped Rabotnicki in one of the semis. The draw for the Macedonian Cup was also made and Feni Industries`s opponent in the quarterfinals of that competition this coming Wednesday is Vardar 2000 Skopje.