Rilski Sportist victorious yet again

Bulgarians Rilski Sportist rolls on convincingly in the Eurohold Balkan League Group B, snatching their 4-th victory tonight, at home versus Fersped Rabotnicki. The 72-65 win by the hosts in Arena Samokov virtually qualifies them for the next stage. With a record of 4-1 now it also makes them favourites for the top of the Group standings, which would give them an easier opponent in that quarterfinal round. It was a second loss for Rabotnicki and they still have work to do to qualify and secure a higher slot, but they do have games in hand at 2-2.   Tonight`s game was also an encounter of two Macedonian head coaches - one that is now in Bulgaria with Rilski Sportist - Aleksandar Todorov - and one that has worked there in the past (with champions Lukoil Academic) - Marin Dokuzovski. The younger (but not less experienced) Todorov eventually won the battle, despite having wasted a lead of 20 points.   The two teams alternated taking the lead by a single point until a run of 11-0 for the hosts gave them a comfortable advantage of 10. It soon became 13 at 20-7 and stayed that way until the end of the first quarter - 26-13.   Ivan Lilov and Travis Peterson were going strong for Rilski Sportist in the second period too and the team scored the opening 7 points in that one to lead 33-13. That was when Todorov decided he could rest some of his team leaders and pace them for the decisive second half. That desrupted the flow for the Bulgarian team though, while Dime Tasovski and Vladimir Filipovic were picking up speed to lead Rabotnicki to a 7-20 run up until half-time, which made it 40-33.   In the third quarter Bojan Trajkovski was firing on all cylinders for the visitors and when he scored in 3 consecutive possessions to make it 47-43, the home team was in trouble. Then Rabotnicki even managed to tie the scores at 47-47, but Lilov started hitting the target from long range again and his team established a new lead (this time much smaller). The third quarter finished at 57-54.   During most of the fourth it was turnovers and missed shots rather than scored baskets by both teams what deremined the scenario, i.e. - Rilski Sportist led by a margin of 2 to 5 points throughout. Filipovic, who along with Trajkovski had been the driving force behind Rabotnicki`s efforts to turn it around, was ejected for a 5-th foul with 3 minutes to go. Without him the visitors couldn`t change a score of 70-65 that persisted for most of the closing 2 and a half minutes. The 2 successful free throw attempts by Branko Mirkovic just rounded out the final 72-65.
 
Travis Peterson was just one board away from a double double, finishing the game with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals, plus some important blocks. Dragoslav Papic scored 12 off the bench, including 8 in the decisive last quarter. Young Ivan Lilov netted 14, but could have had much more, save for many close misses from three-point range.   The players of Fersped Rabotnicki missed a lot of open three-pointers too, but Dime Tasovski still scored as many as Lilov - 3, for a total of 13 points. Bojan Trajkovski (20 pts) and Vladimir Filipovic (18 pts) were much better for the Skopje team this time around, but their efforts were not enough for a victory.