Levski gets a very important win in Skopje as 41 points by Ivey are not enough for the shorthanded FMP

BC Levski 2014 recorded a very important win in Group A of Delasport Balkan League. The Blues from Sofia visited KK Navico Akademija FMP in Skopje and took 103-74 victory following a superb second half. It has to be said that the hosts were missing their head coach and four of their key players due to illness and had to use just six tonight which had a huge effect on the game and the final outcome. Still FMP managed to stay close to the opponent in the first half but the team had no fuel in the tank left for the second and the visitors cruised on for the win. It puts them on a 1-2 record and by this they took an advantage over the opponent in the battle for a place in the Top 4. FMP in the meantime is now with a 0-5 record and with just three games to go, the team's task to reach Stage 2 became much harder. Next week Levski will host the leader Hapoel Nufar Energy Galil Elion while FMP will play Maccabi Next Urban Haifa.

The teams exchanged baskets early and the hosts even managed to take a 4-point lead. Levski though responded quickly and after making a 10-0 run went up by 6. FMP stopped the run but the visitors were in a good moment and increased the advantage to 11 before the hosts cut it to 9 at the end of the first ten minutes. They even closed the gap to just 2 points in the second quarter and stayed close to their opponent for the most part of it. FMP though missed few chances to tie and then Levski took advantage by finishing the half strong and once again went up by 9.

The match was practically decided in the third quarter when The Blues increased their lead after which there was no chance of a comeback for the home side. Thanks to an 8-2 start of the second half the advantage went to 15 points and Levski controlled the match after. Later they made a 9-0 run to go up by 20 and until the end increased the lead even more for a convincing win.

The visitors used 9 players which helped them being fresher and used that to play more aggressive style. It reflected on the stats as they had 78.9% 2-points shooting having scored 30 from 38 attempts as they also moved the ball well and dished out 30 assists compared to just 12 for the home team.

Ivica Radic was the best player on the court finishing with a double-double of 25 points and 11 rebounds. Mario Little also did well by scoring 15 points as Tsvetomir Chernokozhev had a double-double with 14 and 11 boards.

Billy Ivey had an amazing game for the hosts as he finished with 41 points and 9 rebounds playing the whole 40 minutes but his effort wasn't enough. The only other player in double figures was Luka Stojanovski who had 12 points.

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