Today, in a match from the Elite 'A' Group West championship held at the "Georgi Hristov" Hall, the Balkan U19 youth team lost to the Sofia-based side Septemvri, 73–83 (21–20, 19–18, 14–24, 19–11).
The young Balkan players were outplayed by their opponents, who demonstrated superior team play, significantly better shooting, and, most importantly, dominated the rebounding battle. By the eighth minute, the visiting team had already built a double-digit lead—28–15. At halftime, Septemvri led 48–40. Two minutes into the third quarter, Balkan narrowed the gap to 4 points (44–48), but within a minute, the deficit returned to double digits (44–54). Although Balkan won the final quarter 19–11, they ultimately fell 73–83.
Ruslan Bogomirov was Balkan’s top scorer with 23 points. Georgi Kharitonov added 14, V. Stoyanov contributed 8, and M. Hristov scored 6.
For Septemvri—coached by D. Georgiev and D. Hristov, and watched by club president Nikolay Spasov—Marinkov was the top scorer with 24 points, Kolev added 14, and both Atanasov and Pramatarov scored 13 points each.
