The league changed its name from Pro A1 to National Basketball League in 2008
Guard of the Year - Willie Deane III (186-G-80) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Forward of the Year - Pero Antic (210-F-82) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Center of the Year - Stefan Georgiev (206-C/F-78) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia Newcomer of the Year - Hristo Zahariev (197-G-90) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia Most Improved Player of the Year - Ivan Lilov (196-F-88) of Balkan Botevgrad Bosman Player of the Year - Pero Antic (210-F-82) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Import Player of the Year - Willie Deane III (186-G-80) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Domestic Player of the Year - Ivan Lilov (196-F-88) of Balkan Botevgrad Defensive Player of the Year - Ivan Lilov (196-F-88) of Balkan Botevgrad Coach of the Year - Georgi Mladenov (Balkan) 1st Team Willie Deane III (186-G-80) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Ivan Lilov (196-F-88) of Balkan Botevgrad Hrisimir Dimitrov (197-G/F-74) of BC Spartak Pleven Dwayne Morton (200-F-71) of Balkan Botevgrad Pero Antic (210-F-82) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia 2nd Team Pavle Boljkovac (190-G-85) of Balkan Botevgrad Stanislav Govedarov (185-G-80) of Tundja Yambol Hristo Nikolov (200-F-85) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Lavell Payne (203-F-85) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Stefan Georgiev (206-C/F-78) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia Honorable Mention Yulian Radionov (188-G-79) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia Asen Velikov (188-G-86) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia Ludmil Hadjisotirov (189-G-80) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Georgi Davidov (204-C-76) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Mike Henderson (188-G-84) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Atanas Radev (200-F-81) of Balkan Botevgrad Aleksandar Yanev (198-F-90) of Cherno More Leven Belberov (199-F-74) of Cherno More Eurohold Varna All-Domestic Players Team Stanislav Govedarov (185-G-80) of Tundja Yambol Ivan Lilov (196-F-88) of Balkan Botevgrad Hristo Nikolov (200-F-85) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Hrisimir Dimitrov (197-G/F-74) of BC Spartak Pleven Stefan Georgiev (206-C/F-78) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia All-Imports Team Willie Deane III (186-G-80) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Mike Henderson (188-G-84) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Larry O'Bannon (191-F-83) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Dwayne Morton (200-F-71) of Balkan Botevgrad Lavell Payne (203-F-85) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia All-Bosmans Team Branko Mirkovic (185-G-82) of Rilski Sportist Samokov Pavle Boljkovac (190-G-85) of Balkan Botevgrad Riste Stefanov (198-G-83) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Pero Antic (210-F-82) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Nenad Canak (204-F-76) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia All-Defensive Team Willie Deane III (186-G-80) of PBC Lukoil Akademik Sophia Ludmil Hadjisotirov (189-G-80) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Ivan Lilov (196-F-88) of Balkan Botevgrad Lavell Payne (203-F-85) of BC CSKA Interlogic Sophia Dwayne Morton (200-F-71) of Balkan Botevgrad All-Newcomers Team Pavle Boljkovac (190-G-85) of Balkan Botevgrad Hristo Zahariev (197-G-90) of BC Levski Ekopetroulium Sophia Martin Durchev (200-G-87) of Tundja Yambol Aleksandar Yanev (198-F-90) of Cherno More Nikolay Kolev (200-F-88) of Cherno More Eurohold Varna  Lukoil
Akademik wins 6th consecutive title ! Lukoil Akademik kept its domination in Bulgaria. The team became a national champion for the sixth time in the row. In the 3rd game of final series Lukoil totally smashed Balkan on the road 90-68. It was a 40th consecutive win of Bulgarian giant. They won 18 games in the first phase, 14 at the second stage and 8 games in play-off. Lukoil took control on Balkan from the beginning. The main reason for this comfortable 13-26 lead is Willie Deane III (186-G-80, agency: Higher Vision Sports, college: Purdue) who trashed Balkan at the opening quarter. He started 22-9 run for Lukoil scoring first 18 of team's 22 points for just 8 minutes. Deane drained his first 4 attempts from behind the arc. Balkan woke up in the second quarter coming closer on minus six 39 seconds before the end of the period. But Deane once again hit a long distance 3-poiner for 33-42. Lukoil intensified defense in the third quarter and thanks to couple of fast breaks by Todor Stoykov (198-G/F-77, agency: Interperformances), Willie Deane and Larry O'Bannon (191-F-83, college: Louisville) extended lead to 21. After that moment it was clear that Lukoil will celebrate its 6th consecutive title. Willie Deane III was key player for his team netting fantastic 39 points for 33 minutes. Pero Antic (210-F-82, agency: Interperformances) also demonstrated good performance collecting 11 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Ivan Lilov (196-F-88, agency: FCM) had 24 points and 4 rebounds in Balkan. Balkan - Lukoil Akademik 68-90 (13-26,20-16,14-26,21-22) Balkan: Lilov 24 (4 rebs), Morton 10, Radev 8 (7 rebounds) Lukoil: Deane 39, Antic 11 (7 rebs, 4 as), Stoykov 11 (4 as)
Lukoil
beat Varna in a repeat of the cup final Lukoil Academic reached for the win in their last away game from the regular season, after beating 111-93 Cherno More Eurohold in a repeat of the final of the bulgarian cup from 10 days ago. After missing the home win against Yambol, Zeljko Lukajic could count on three valuable players - Pero Antic (210-F-82, agency: Interperformances), Riste Stefanov and Tencho Banev. Lukajic also was on the bench again. The begining was for the home side, as they lead it 10-2 after 3 minutes, but the champions quickly striked back with a 9-0 run and were ahead 10-11 after 6 minutes of play. In the end of the quarter American Willie Deane scored 7 points in a row, and made them 10 after a buzzer-beater from three-point territory - 21-33 for Lukoil, after no defense at all for the home team. In the first five minutes of the second quarter the macedonian star Pero Antic was on fire and the score was 27-44, and minute and a half later they had a 18-point advantage - 30-48. Here the home side woke up, and Tencho Banev got a technical foul and the difference went down to 38-48. It remained like that until halftime - 45-55. After a very high-scoring third quarter, in which both teams managed to score a total of 63 points (32-31 for Varna). Lukoil Academic didn't managed to get a bigger lead, which was a sign for a interesting final of the game. Two consecutive long shots by Larry O'Bannon and Chavdar Kostov made the score 77-93, and a little later the champions were leading with 22 (77-99) after 13-0 run early in the fourth. At this stage the winner was clear and the game was just being played. Both coaches gave a chance to all of their players. Pero Antic showed that he is in shape with 26 points and 15 rebounds. Willie Deane and Larry O'Bannon had 17 points each, and Nenad Canak finished with 14. Lukoil shot good from long range - 13 out of 28 attempts, which means 46.4%. For Cherno More Todd Galloway had 24 points and 5 assists. This was 29th win in a row for the students, and Cherno More only has 13 wins and 16, which gives them the sixth position. That's what they should prefer, because they are playing third-seeded Balkan FULL STATS FROM THE GAME CHERNO MORE - LUKOIL ACADEMIC by Alexander Sotirov - BulgarianBasket.com
Toyota team is the new winner in the HDI All Star Game after defeating Ledenika team with 113-90. This was the opening game for the new modern hall in the city of Samokov. The event was honoured by the presence of a lot of famous politicians and celebrities including the president of the country Mr. Georgi Parvanov, the new head coach of the Bulgarian national team Pini Gershon and others. Although suited to accommodate 3000 people, Arena Samokov was already full 2 hours before the start of the game and many people couldn't get inside to watch the show live. Everyone present and the television viewers witnessed an amazing spectacle. The show was completed by Fiore ballet, Space Dunkers and MC Bony. In honour of the International Women's Day - 8th March, the game was refereed by the trio Stanka Koleva, Tatyana Valcheva and Vesela Kokonova, and the delegate was Krasimira Gyurova. This was the first game in which the players were mixed instead of being divided in Bulgarians vs foreigners. The coaches themselves (Zeljko Lukaic and Georgi Mladenov for Ledenika and Lubomir Minchev and Rosen Barchovski for Toyota) chose the players for the two teams. Ledenika's players played as equals only in the beginning of the game but after the center of the second quarter Toyota's players were way better on the court and managed to control the game to the very end. At the half time they were ahead by 8 points (61-53) but most players and the coaches were hardly interested in the result because of the nature of the game which is meant to be a show. During the second half of the game Toyota played even better and in the end they won by 23 points. Everyone who participated in the game enjoyed themselves and were also aplauded for their attractive performance. Todor Stoykov from Toyota was chosen for MVP of the game. He played only one half scoring 18 points, to which he added 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot. His teammate from Lukoil Academic Pero Antic scored 17 points for 16 minutes, and CSKA's captain Georgi Davidov finished with 16. Spartak Pleven's center Sasha Topcov was the most effective player for Ledenika with 14 points FULL STATS FROM THE HDI ALL STAR GAME LEDENIKA - TOYOTA 2008 LEDENIKA
Playmakers
by Svetlin Petrov - BulgarianBasket.com |
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