Mornar took down Balkan for their second straight win

KK Mornar Bar continued with their good efforts in the EUROHOLD Balkan League. Tonight Djordjie Pavicevic′s squad achieved their second straight win in the competition, after defeating BC Balkan Botevgrad 79:71 at home in Topolica Hall in Bar.    This is Mornar′s second consecutive win, and now they stand alone on top of Group B with a balance of 2-0, while Balkan are on the other side - last with 0-1 record.   The game started off with a basket by Nemanja Radovic, but Josh Gonner scored Balkan′s first BIBL points to make it 2:2. Mornar quickly started pressing their opponents and were up by 8 (13:5) with 6.25 left in the first, before Petar Klechkov took his first time-out of the game. After 10 minutes the home side were up by 8 points - 24:16.   In the begining of the second quarter, Balkan decreased the difference down to 4 points - 24:20, but Mornar maintained ahead of their opponents, as the difference varied between 4 and 6 points. Mornar had their first double digit lead with 2.37 left in the half, after two succesfull free-throws by Ivan Jelenic (36:26). Halfway through the game the home team was up by 14 - 47:33.   Balkan didn′t start the second half in the best possible way, and they were losing by 20 after a little more than 22 minutes of playing action - 53:33. After that they started turning things around, after making a 13:0 run, as Mornar didn′t score a basket for for almost 4 minutes. After 30 minutes Mornar still had the lead, despite the great third period by Balkan - 59:55.   In the decisive fourth period, Balkan could definitely feel the absence of one of their key players - Yordan Bozov, who didn′t travel with the team due to personal issues. However Mornar maintained their position in the last quarter, and didn′t let the lead slip away, as finally they won it 79:71 in order to make it two wins in a row in the BIBL.   Five of the home team players managed to score 10 or more points. Lance Sullivan led the way with 19, while Novak Popovic and Ivan Jelenic added 14 each. Nikola Ljulic and youngster Nikola Ivanovic added 11 a piece.   Joshua Gonner was the top scorer for Balkan, stringing in 20 points, on an 8-18 shooting. Georgi Davidov ended up with 14 points, while veteran Dwayne Morton scored 12 and grabbed 8 boards. Lyubomir Lilov finished with 10 points.    The home team outrebounded their visitors 35 to 28 rebounds, as both teams shared an equal amount of turnovers ( 15 for Mornar, 16 for Balkan).