Mornar with an important win, keep chances for the first place

         The young team of Mornar Bar continued with their good efforts in the EUROHOLD Balkan League. Tonight Djordje Pavicevic′s squad achieved their fourth win in the competition, after defeating BC Balkan 70:78 on road in Sports Complex Pravets. Both sides played without some of their best players – Yordan Bozov suffered a bad leg injury in the Balkan’s last game in the domestic championship against Lukoil Academic, while Mornar’s best scorer Ivan Jelenic was out with a cold. The club also released Novak Popovic and Lance Sullivan.   

              This is Mornar’s second victory as a guest, as they surprised the leader in group B KK Feni Industries at the start. Now they stayed 2nd in group B with a balance of 4-2, and still have a minor chance for the first place. Balkan are on the other side with 1-4 record.
 
               The game started off with a two lay-ups from Dimitar Philipov run for the
host from Botevgrad, but Nikola Ljulic made a three fast-breaks, and scored a basket and a foul, followed by three-pointer from Mirza Sarajlija, which gave up to Mornar a comfortable lead in the match – 4:14 after only 4 minutes of play. Mornar quickly started pressing their opponents and equal the score – 14:14 with 4.22 left in the first.  In the remaining time the lead didn’t change and even growed up -  after 10 minutes the guests from Bar were up by 17 points – 13:30.
 
              In the begining of the second quarter, Balkan took the game in their hands and the difference varied between 10 and 15 points until the end of the quarter. In there last offence, Petar Klechkov’s squad managed to score their first three-pointer in the game. Halfway through the game the guest team was up by 9 - 30:39. Mirza Sarajlija was the best scorer for the leading side with 14 points, Nikola Ljulic has 10, while Nikola Ivanovic record 9 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. For Balkan Lyubomir Lilov was the best performer with 8 points and 3 rebounds.
 
               Balkan start the second half in the best possible way, as they managed to decrease their trail and even take the lead for 30 seconds – 54:51. KK Mornar tried to turn the things around, as the hosts made three consecutive turnovers, the
Montenegrin representative still had the lead 54-56.
 
              In the decisive fourth period, Balkan made a lot of attempts to decrease
their trail, but with a great offence play and a strong  defence, KK Mornar kept their lead until the end and didn′t let the victory to slip away, as finally they won 70:78 in order to make it four wins in the EUROHOLD Balkan League 2010/2011. The big difference was in the turnovers – 30 for Balkan as 19 for Mornar, also the Montenegrin team grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.
 
                Nikola Ljulic was the most efficient for the winners with 23 points and 6
rebounds, while 16 years old Nikola Ivanovic ended with 17 points, 5 rebounds,
6 assists and 6 steals. Mirza Sarajlija scored 18 points.
 
                Lyubomir Lilov played an enourmous game for Balkan, finishing with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assits and 4 steals. Dwayne Morton nailed 13, while the veteran Georgi Davidov added 11 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.