Solid start leads Akademik past Ibar at home

After losing two games in a row, Akademik Plovdiv is back on the winning track. The leaders in Group B hosted KK Ibar and thanks to a great first quarter managed to build a big lead and win 77-61 at the end. Following the first ten minutes the home side controlled the game and moved to a 5-2 record. Next week they'll host Ironi Rain Nahariya in a game that could be decisive for the first position in the group. In the meantime Ibar lost following two straight wins and now has 2-4 record. Next week the Rozaje team will travel to Skopje to meat TFT in an important and likely decisive game for a place in Stage 2.

The hosts had a solid start and led by 13 points already in the middle of the first quarter. The visitors managed to cut the deficit with 4 points in a row but Akademik ended on a 7-1 run to go up by 15 after ten minutes. In the second quarter the home side controlled the difference without allowing the visitors to close the gap by much. Still they did cut it by a few points and at the break the difference was 11 points. Akademik started the third quarter determined to seal the game away and increase its difference. The hosts did just that as near the end of it the advantage reached 16 points and they had no troubles until the end.

The biggest difference between the teams was the three-point shooting as the visitors scored 11 times from 29 attempts while Ibar missed all of their 25 shots.

Vasil Bachev was the top scorer for the winners with 18 points. Nikolay Nikolov had a solid game with 14 points as the youngster Krastomir Mihov had his best outing as a senior with 13 points and 5 rebounds.

The visitors were led by Vasilije Knezevic who scored 19 points against his former team while Nikola Pavlovic had 14 and 8 rebounds.

BOXSCORE