Balkan defeats Levski for second time in a row

BC Balkan won its second straight game in Group A of Delasport Balkan League and once again it came over BC Levski 2014. The Greens from Botevgrad took a 79-65 victory away in Sofia despite starting slow. They did well at the end of the second and at the beginning of the third quarter which allowed them to build an advantage and they held it on after that. That result puts Balkan on a 2-1 record while Levski is now at 0-2.

Levski had the better start to the game thanks to its better shooting. The Blues from Sofia took an early 15-7 lead and as Balkan missed all 6 of its three-points attempts in the first quarter, the hosts even managed to take a double-digit lead of 10 points at the end of it. The visitors scored the first 6 points of the second quarter but despite that Levski continued to have the lead. That changed when after the middle of it Balkan went on an 11-0 run to take the advantage. Then both teams exchanged baskets and when the buzzer for the end of the first half sounded, Balkan was up by 1.

The visitors opened the second half with a great 15-0 run which put them well ahead by 16 points. Following that run they managed to keep their advantage and were up by 12 following the third quarter. In the final period the hosts managed to cut the deficit to single digits and had few chances to close the gap even more. Balkan however responded well and was able to hold on for the victory.

Derrick Marks was the top scorer for the winners finishing with 25 points while also adding 5 assits. Kahlil Dukes had 11 points as Stanimir Marinov and Dimitar Dimitrov had 10 apiece.

The hosts were missing two key players in Chavdar Kostov and Tsvetomir Chernokozhev and it affected their performance. Mario Little had a good game with 23 points as Ivica Radic added 19 and 8 rebounds;

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