Akademik overcomes a bad first quarter to spoil Sigal Prishtina's return

Delasport BIBL runner-up from last season - Akademik Plovdiv, started the new season with a win. In a Group B game the team overcame a slow start and defeated KB Sigal Prishtina 94-85 to spoil the Kosovo team's return to the competition after four years. The home side did very well early and were up by double digits for the first 15 minutes but then Akademik started performing better and came away with the win. Now the Plovdiv team will travel to Rozaje to meet Ibar on Thursday while next week Sigal will visit KK TFT in Skopje.

Both teams exchanged baskets early but after the middle of the first quarter the hosts managed to pull away. They did so thanks to a 9-0 run which gave them 11-point advantage. At the end of the period the difference was 12 and then the team continued to have a good lead. It reached 14 points near the middle of the second quarter but then Akademik answered with 12-0 to close the gap. Then the teams exchanged baskets and at the break the difference remained 2 points.

Near the middle of the third quarter the visitors made an 11-2 run which put them up by 5 points. They managed to keep the advantage as in the following minutes they controlled the score and were ahead by 7 points after 30 minutes. In the final ten the hosts tried hard but Akademik didn't allow them to threathen and at the end celebrated with the victory.

Tomislav Minkov had a great game for the winners and finished with 26 points while missing just 2 from 13 shots. Vasil Bachev did well as usual adding 15 points while Nemanja Besovic and Nikolay Nikolov (10 rebounds) had 14 apiece.

The hosts were led by Dachon Burke who had 26 points while Lejson Zeqiri finished with 21 and 8 rebounds.

BOXSCORE