BC Mures defeated Balkan for their first BIBL win

BC Mures won their home game from Round 4 in Group B of the EUROHOLD Balkan League, after defeating BC Balkan 90:83. After this win both teams share a 1-2 balance and each of them has 4 points.
 
The guest team got off to a better start and quickly built a 0:5 lead after baskets by Dwayne Morton and Joshua Gonner. Balkan maintained their lead, as they were up 6:7 with 8.08 to go, but Jason Forte tipped the ball in the basket after his own missed shot to give BC Mures their first lead of the game - 8:7. Dwayne Morton gave his team a 8:10 lead with a three, before Aleksandar Mladenovic tied the game at 10:10. Joshua Gonner scored 5 points in a row to give his team a 13:18 lead with 3.56 remaining. Georgi Davidov scored for 13:20 and Balkan had their biggest lead so far - 7 points. Mures managed to decrease the difference, and after baskets by Forte and Mladenovic they were down by 3 (19:22), but Raykov and Doychinov scored to give Balkan a comfortable 7-point lead after the first 10 minutes - 19:26.
 
BC Mures started the second quarter strong, and after a 9:0 run they led the game 28:26 with 7.56 on the clock. Josh Gonner and Lyubomir Lilov scored two consecutive baskets to give their team a 28:30 lead, before Aleksandar Mladenovic tied the game at 30:30. Balkan started a 7:0 run, finished with a basket by Gonner to find themselves ahead 30:37 with 5.14 until haftime. Mures started playing zone defense, which helped them a lot, and they were once again leading - 40:39 after a dunk by Jason Forte. Balkan got the lead - 41:42 after one made free-throw by Yordan Bozov, but Flavius Lapuste gave his team the lead before halftime - after scoring a three-pointer for 44:42 after 20 minutes of play.
 
The home side started the second half confident, increasing their lead to 48:42 after a dunk by Mladenovic and a jumper by Lapuste. Josh Gonner with a three-pointer and Lubo Lilov with a succesful mid-range shot quickly erased the gap to 1 point - 48:47. Mures weren′t able to break ahead of Balkan, as the game remained close. The score was tied three times in less than two minutes, before Georgi Davidov gave Balkan a 57:58 lead with 1.29 remaining in the third. Gytas Sirutavicius converted the and one play to give Mures a 60:58 lead. Davidov made two free-throw shots to tie the game at 60:60 with 50 seconds left in the third. After 30 minutes of play the score was 65:62.
 
BC Mures continued their strong play in the last quarter as well. Supported by 2000 fans at their home court, Csaba Deri′s team won the decisive fourth period 25:21, in order to get their first win in the EUROHOLD Balkan League, as the final score was 90:83.
 
JuJuan Cooley had a terrific game for BC Mures, finishing with 16 points, 14 assists and 5 steals, for an efficiency rating of 27. Jason Forte and Aleksandar Mladenovic also posted up double-doubles - Forte had 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Mladenovic added 13 points, 10 rebounds and 6 blocks. Flavius Lapuste and Liviu Dumitru had 17 points each, while Gytas Sirutavicius added 12.
 
Joshua Gonner was the top scorer for Balkan with 22 points, while Yordan Bozov added 7 points, 7 rebounds, 13 assists and 5 steals. Georgi Davidov had a double-double with 18 points and 11 boards and Krum Doychinov came off the bench with 10 points and 7 rebounds.