Akademik Plovdiv holds on in Kumanovo after a strong finish

BC Akademik Plovdiv opened up the battle in Group G of Delasport Balkan League with an important win. The Bulgarian side visited KK Kumanovo 2009 and took 87-70 victory which could prove to be crucial in the battle for the Final Four. Akademik also took revenge for the two defeats from Kumanovo in Stage 1 and now is in a great position.

Akademik played great defense in the first half when it held its opponent to just 22 points. The visitors pulled ahead thanks to a 13-3 run which put them up by 10 points. They held the advantage until the end of the first quarter and kept it in the second. With 6 points in a row the difference reached 16 after the middle of it and at the break the lead was 15.

In the second half Kumanovo came out a different team and in the third quarter scored more points than in the first half. The hosts finally showed a fighting spirit and thanks to a good run to finish it, they closed the gap to just 4. Kumanovo even managed to cut the deficit to just 3 points but a 10-2 run in just two minutes put the visitors up by double-digits again. From that moment on they not only held to their lead but also increased it for a comfortable win.

Akademik scored a total of 13 triples from 25 attempts which compared to 7 from 23 by the hosts was too much of a difference.

Vasil Bachev was the top scorer in the game with 24 points hitting 5 three-pointers. Tony Gugino and Jere Vucica also did well for the visitors adding 15 points apiece.

The hosts were led by Branislav Djekic with 16 points and 7 rebounds while Corey Raley-Ross had 11 points.

BOXSCORE