Bulgaria holds off fighting Cypriots and keeps chances for first place in group “F”
The men’s national basketball team of Bulgaria recorded a very difficult third victory in the pre-qualifications for EuroBasket 2022. Rosen Barchovski’s selection suffered, but they still held off Cyprus 75:66 (16:8, 17:13, 24:27, 18:18 ). ) during their visit to “Eleftheria Sports Arena” in Nicosia. In this way, the “lions” returned to the winning way after the wrong step they made three days ago against the team of Portugal.
Thus, the “tricolors” recorded success in the first of their two must-win matches in group “F”. Bulgaria has an asset of 3-1 and will occupy the second position after the end of the fourth round. The leader will be Portugal, which hosts Romania from 19:00. The next match of the Bulgarian team will take place on February 23 – against our northern neighbors. Three days later is the key clash against Portugal, after which the battle for the first place in the final ranking can be decided.
The national team again failed to show their best, as well as in the match against Portugal. Today, the Bulgarian team enters the match as absolute favorites and, as expected, it is up to an advance of 20 points at 41:21, but the middle of the third quarter and the match turns into a nightmare for Barchovski’s boys. A couple of consecutive 3-pointers by the captain of Cyprus Nikos Stylianou melted the distance to 10 points, and in the last quarter the home team even tightened the hoop so much that they were very close to reducing their abandonment to one possession. An important umbrella and then a key shot by Pavlin Ivanov at the end managed to save the “lions” from the attacks of the opponent.
FIRST QUARTER:
The match started very strongly for the Bulgarian team, which started with three consecutive successful attacks from the very beginning of the match. Chavdar Kostov, Nikolay Stoyanov and David Kravish scored to put the “lions” ahead at 2:6 in the score. In the next few minutes, the results decreased, as Stoyanov continued to be aggressive and the Spartak Pleven winger already had four points on his personal account – 4:8.
Chavdar Kostov’s triple made the distance between the two teams six points at 5:11, continuing to impress the solid defense that Bulgaria is showing in Nicosia today. Pavlin Ivanov, who appeared from the bench, also shot the opponent’s basket to close the gap to double digits at 5:14. The wonderful series of the Bulgarian team continues with a new fighting performance by Nikolay Stoyanov for 5:16 in favor of our national team. In the final account, the home team melted three points from their abandonment by the end of the first Thursday, which ended at 8:16 in the asset of Bulgaria.
SECOND QUARTER:
Unfortunately, the drought without a basket for our team was getting longer and longer, and the accumulation of unnecessary fouls increasingly helped Cyprus to get closer to the score. Andreas Hristodolu made two free throws to cut his team’s deficit to four points before Ivan Alipiev converted his first three of the game at 12:19.
The “Lions” started to look like themselves again after Konstantin Kostadinov and David Kravish were accurate for 12:25 in favor of the Bulgarian team. If nothing else, the boys impressed with their strong defensive play, holding Cyprus to just 19 points conceded with 60 seconds left in the first half. All of the Islanders crossed the 20 mark before the start of Thursday’s third, but Nikolay Stoyanov made sure to secure double figures in Bulgaria at half-time at 21:33 in favor of Rosen Barchovski’s selection.
THIRD QUARTER:
The second half couldn’t start better for the “tricolors”, realizing two quick three-pointers through Andrei Ivanov and Chavdar Kostov, thus the difference reached 18 points at 21:39 on the light board. On the other side, Cyprus already had 16 consecutive missed shots from the triple without a basket, and the formidable combination between Deyan Karamfilov and David Kravish formed a series of 0:8 in favor of Bulgaria, so that the distance could be increased to 20 points at 21:41 at the start of the third quarter. After what turned into a forced timeout for the home team, they managed to record the mini-series and shorten four points from their deficit, but Ivan Alipiev had other results and restored the lead of the Bulgarians at 25:44.
The home team recovered from the lackluster performance up to that point and started to get the points much easier at hand, at one point cutting the lead to 14 points at the 37:51 mark late in the third period. The graduates of Christoforos Liviadotis do not give up and after two consecutive three-pointers by Nikos Stylianou, the distance has already left double-digit dimensions – 45:54. Another perfect shot by the Cypriot captain followed, but it was immediately neutralized by Alex Simeonov’s three-pointer at 48:57 before the start of the final period.
LAST THURSDAY:
Alex Simeonov’s important three-pointer opened the last quarter, and thanks to her advance, the national team did not reach double figures again at 48:60. The situation suddenly turned critical for the Lions, however, as the Cypriot team went on a 10-2 run to get back into the game at 58-62 with about four minutes remaining in regulation time. In these minutes, the team again does not allow several wrong decisions in the offensive plan, which allow the Cypriots to develop their potential for a quick attack and punish the selection of Rosen Barchovski.
However, thanks to David Kravish and Pavlin Ivanov, the team did not increase its lead to seven points with about two minutes left until the final whistle – 60:67. Naturally, the match also passed through another critical point for our national team, after with a score of 63:67, the home team had a chance to damage the different one possession, but Pavlin Ivanov’s key umbrella and then his three managed to repel the opponent – 63:70 with 1:20 left on the clock. This is the turning point in the match, as the home team did not manage to damage a new attack and thus the victory goes to the hands of Bulgaria after 66:75.
Pavlin Ivanov led the column for Bulgaria with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Chavdar Kostov scored 12 points plus 7 rebounds, and Andrey Ivanov had a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
TITLE FIVE:
CYPRUS: Nikos Tigas, Roberto Mantovani, Ioannis Paciali, Konstantinos Simitzis, Nikos Stylianou
BULGARIA: Deyan Karamfilov, Chavdar Kostov, Nikolay Stoyanov, Andrey Ivanov, David Kravish