Today, in a third-round NBL match, Balkan won their away game against Yambol. Playing in the renovated Diana Hall, "The Greens" secured an 84–73 victory (22–20, 19–15, 24–16, 19–22).
Balkan held the lead for nearly the entire game and controlled the flow of play, though at times they allowed the hosts to narrow the deficit to under ten points. Both teams shot with similar accuracy—just over 48%—but the hosts won the rebounding battle (44–39). Balkan, however, recorded 9 more assists (21–12) and committed 5 fewer turnovers.
Once again, Balkan played without guards Darnell Edge and Javante McCoy. Pavlin Ivanov delivered a strong performance, hitting 6 of 10 three-point attempts and finishing as the game's top scorer with 32 points. Aleksandar Stoimenov contributed 12 points and 8 rebounds, while Konstantin Toshkov recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. Nikolay Grozev and Alex Ducas scored 7 points each, Gael Bonin added 6, and Okweda chipped in with 5.
For Yambol, Hardy-Taylor scored 19 points; Joshua Taylor recorded 13 points and 16 rebounds; Jalen Young finished with 11 points and 8 assists; and Anton Vacher added 11 points and 7 rebounds. On Saturday, October 24, at 18:00 at Arena Botevgrad, Botev 2012 will host Botev Akademik from Plovdiv.
