40 minutes not enough for Levski to break Yambol in the first semifinal match of the playoff series in National Basketball League. "The Blues" needed five minutes of extra time to get a 103-95 victory and grabbed 1-0 lead in best of five series. with which they approached the final year for the National Basketball League. The match was filled with many lead changes, however at the end the big desire to succeed from the players of Levski prevailed in for this important victory. The second match of the series is once again in "Universiada" hall on Friday (May 11th) starting at 18.00 local time.
Levski scored the first six point in the game, but the visitors made a series of 11 consecutive points and they grabbed the lead by 5. "The Blues" tied up the score at 13-13, but again Yambol scored 8 points in a row. Then both teams exchanged a basket and the first part ended 23-15 in favor of Yambol. The visitors continued to lead in the second quarter, Levski made some run but at the half time break the score was 39-35 in favor of Yambol.
Levski started better the second half and after 5 straight points got the lead for the first time since the beginning of the match. In this part of the game both teams exchanged baskets and at the end of third quarter Levski was up by two 66-64.
The last quarter was interesting and with dramatic end. First 29 seconds before the end Levski went ahead by 2 points, but the visitors responded with three of Julian Radionov with 16 ticks on the clock remaining. Just 10 seconds before the final whistle Vasil Evtimov got fouled, but he scored only the first free throw to evened the score.
In overtime Yambol scored the first two points in it but Levski responded with 9 consecutive points to take control up to the end. They closed the game at 103-95 and got 1-0 lead in the series.
Incredible game for Chavdar Kostov, who finished with 24 points and 7 rebounds. Aaron Harper added 18 points and 6 assists and Marcus Hall scored 15 points and 8 assists.
For the guests from Yambol Martin Durchev was top scorer with 25 points.
