Lukoil Academic beat Levski in the last match between those teams in the regular season of National League. In a very low scoring game they were better by the score 62-53 and pretty much decided the winner of first place in domestic competition before the playoffs. Therefore Lukoil Academic will have home court advantage through entire playoffs for season 2011/12.
There was too much pressure for the players of coach Titi Papazov which reflected on their play and they couldn’t show much of their abilities. However, Levski proved that they can play well as a guest in Pravets, where the boys of the club took the only victory over Lukoil Academic in this season.
Lukoil Academic started better the game and led 10-0 before Papazov took a time-out. Levski leaped after that and cut the difference to just one point. In the latest attack of the first quarter 3-point shot by Andre Owens gave Lukoil 4 points lead - 19-15. The second quarter was equal in the beginning but Lukoil Academic managed to get 13 points advantage- 32-19. Levski managed to reduce its to only 8 at the end of the second quarter and made halftime score 35-27 in favor of the guests.
Levski started the second half pretty well with 5 unanswered points. However Lukoil Academic played better in the final minutes of the third part and led by 54-43 ahead of the last ten minutes. They managed to keep their advantage which at the end meant a victory in the derby. Finally the result was 62-53 in their favor.
Andre Owens scored 19 points and Brandon Heath added 12 points for the guests of Pravets.
For Levski Marcus Hall scored 10 points, Stefan Georgiev added 9 while Pavel Ivanov managed 8 points.
Next week Levski visited the Balkan Botevgrad while Lukoil Academic play at home versus Rilski Sportist.
