Beroe overcomes a bad start to take an important win in Skopje

The Second Stage of Delasport Balkan League started with an interesting and intense game in Skopje. BC Beroe is the team that managed to start with a win after beating 87-83 KK TFT in a Group F game. It was a really interesting and hard fought contest which came down to the wire. In the final minutes the visitors managed to hold on and took a really important victory in the battle for the Final Four. Now on March 8th Beroe will host Hapoel Gilboa Galil while two days later TFT will play the Israeli side.

It was a perfect start to the game for TFT as the hosts scored the first 9 points. Soon their lead reached double digits and shortly before the end of the first quarter went to 15. Beroe though managed to finish it well and thanks to a 13-3 run closed the gap to 5 points. In the second period the visitors played a great offfense, improved the defense and it reflected on the scoreboard. Thanks to starting it with a 9-0 run they took their first lead of the game only for TFT to answer with 5-0. This time the hosts' advantage didn't last long as Beroe scored the next 8 points. The home side once again responded to tie the score but in the last four minutes of the first half the visitors went on a 16-3 run to take a good double-digit lead at the break.

Beroe didn't score for almost five minutes at the start of the second half and TFT capitalized on that by making a 10-0 run to get back in the game. Soon after that they also tied the score and then the teams exchanged a few points. Shortly before the third quarter finished TFT took the lead but the visitors went ahead thanks to a triple by Brady Rose just before the buzzer. The teams continued to fight hard in the fourth period and in the middle of it two straight triples by Beroe put the team up by 4 points. They never looked back after as TFT was missing its chances. In the final minute the visitors were able to score their free throws thanks to Gavin and held on for the victory.

The visitors took 17 offensive rebounds compared to 10 for the hosts which gave them some advantage. Adding to that the fact that Beroe hit 14 triples - 5 more than TFT, which also contributed for the win.

James Gavin was the top scorer for the visitors with 18 points while also adding 6 assists. Nikolay Stoyanov and Stanislav Vaklinov did very well by scoring 14 points which with the latter grabbing 13 rebounds for a double-double.

The hosts were led by Lachlan Anderson who had 19 points. Tyron Harris added 18 and 6 assists as Landrius Horton scored 15 points.

BOXSCORE