More Focused Bulgaria Took The Aame Against Belarus

Bulgaria played better and dominated the first quarter, leaning on Aleksandra Kancheva and Stefka Nikolova who scored 7 apiece for their team. Belarus had serious problems to make their game going and trailed as much as 8 points, 10-18, with 4:02 remaining in the first.

Belarus improved its all-court defense and it worth an 8-2 run for Aliaksandr Shymkaviak’s team which closed the gap, 20-22, at the end of the quarter, with Veranika Valeuskaya scoring 6 pts in the spurt, being Nazdeya Bohdan who kept Belarus in the game during part of the first sith 8 points.

In the second Vyktoria Adamik closed a 15-2 run that abridged the final of the first and the beginning of the second to put Belarus back in front since the first minute of the game, 27-22.

Both teams traded baskets since then, but Bulgary recovered and chipped Belarus’ advantage to finally, after a three pointer from Violina Kocheva get back in front 31-29, after 3:50 of the second, sparking an 8-0 run that would put them up 36-29 after a trey from Stanislava Stankova. Then both teams traded again but Bulgary didn’t struggle to keep their noses in front and reach the interval up 43-37.

Both teams struggled to score in the third, apart from an 8-3 run in the first 3:30 which put Belarus just one point down, 45-46, and after which they wouldn’t score anymore until the very final second of the quarter when Aliaksandra Zubrytskaya scored a freebie that put the final score of the third, 46-56 for Bulgary.

Bulgaria took advantage fo Belarus’ drought and recovered its lead that was 45-53 with 3:50 remaining in the third, but then they suffered the same scoring collapse than Belarus and they wouldn’t score until Stefka Nikolova hit the three with three seconds remaining for Gechev Ventislav’s team.

Belarus tried again to make a Comeback. They scored an 7-0 run beggining the fourth to close the gap to five points, 53-58, in the first three minutes, dividing the points between Maryia Fylonchyk (4) and Veranika Valeuskaya (3). Bulgary didn’t feel menaced and kept their composure, reaching a maximum lead of 13 points, 56-69, after a three pointer from Stefka Nikolova with 3:30 remaining.

From that momento on, though, Bulgary stop scoring during the rest of the way but Belarus didn’t take advantage of that and wouldn’t score until the last 30 seconds, when Veranika Adamik and Veranika Vaeuskaya closed the score with back to back baskets to make it 62-69 after almost four minutes scoreless.

For Belarus Maryia Fylonchik  had 21 pts and 9 boards, Veranika Valeuskaya 17 and 11, Aliaksandra Zubrytskaya 11 pts and Viktoryia Adamik 10

For Bulgary Stefka Nikolova had 26 points, 6 boards and 4 assists (Turning the ball over 8 times) joined by Aleksandra Kancheva and Sarnislava Stankova with 11 points apiece and 13 rebounds from Anna-Maria Boshkova.