Kumanovo and Levski are tied after a great first game

KK Kumanovo and BC Levski are tied after a great first quarterfinal in EUROHOLD Balkan League. The first match of the series finished with the score tied 74-74 and everything will have to be decided next week in Sofia. The hosts from Kumanovo overcame a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to the the score at the buzzer. Now both teams are heading to the second match absolutely tied and we should expect another great encounter. 
 
The home team had a great start to take a 10-2 lead early. Levski then bounced back and close the gap but after ten minutes Kumanovo was up by a point. The hosts continued to have the advantage until three minutse to play in the first half when Levski went up. The visitors finished the quarter on a 12-2 run to take a 6-point advantage after the break.
 
The second half started with 5 straight points for Levski as they took a double digit lead. Later in the third quarter after scoring 7 in a row they went to a 16-point advantage and after Chalmers triple managed to be 14 up after 30 minutes. The hosts however didn′t give up and started the fourth quarter on 11-1 run that brought them back to just 4 points. With three minutes left the difference was the same and at that point Ivica Dimcevski missed a three-pointer. In the next offense Lionel Chalmers scored one for the visitors and then the visitors entered the last minute with a 6-point lead. However Kumanovo closed the gap to just 2 points with 8 seconds to play after a Royce Parran′s triple. He was also fouled but missed the free throw and then Levski missed two free throws. After it there was time for Uros Lukovic to score at the buzzer to tie the score and set-up a great game in one week.
 
Vukasin Mandic was the top scorer for the winners with 23 points while 16 and 11 rebounds had Ivan Miskovic.
 
For the visitors Hristo Zahariev finished with 14 points as three other players scored 11 apiece.

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FULL STATS FROM THE GAME KK KUMANOVO 2009 - BC LEVSKI