Cherno More Ticha defended its trophy from the Bulgarian Men's Basketball Cup tournament. Varna won its second consecutive and sixth overall honor from the competition, after defeating Lokomotiv Plovdiv with 88:87 (20:28, 27:15, 19:18, 22:26) in the final at “Arena Botevgrad“, where the Final Eight was held. Cherno More's head coach Vasil Evtimov triumphed in the tournament for the third consecutive year, after leading Burgas' Chernomorets to the award in 2024, BTA reported.
The two teams played a very competitive and interesting final match, in which they disputed the victory until the very end. Lokomotiv led 12:8 with a basket by Krastomir Mihov and a three-pointer by Shaw Anderson after four minutes of play. A little later, Tomislav Minkov made the lead for Plovdiv – 19:11. Cherno more Ticha came close to 3 points, but less than a minute before the end of the first quarter, Grant Singleton scored for a lead of 10 for Lokomotiv – 27:17. The last basket of the period was made by Tsvetomir Chernokozhev for Varna, making the score 20:28.
Cherno more Ticha reduced the distance to 2 points – 30:32, after Ventsislav Petkov was accurate twice from the penalty line, but Georgi Kenderov and Khalil Miller scored in consecutive attacks for Lokomotiv to increase their team's lead to 7 points – 37:30. A series of 7 unanswered points for the “Sailors“ led to a tie – 37:37, fixed by a basket by Lamont West with four minutes remaining in the first half, and after a three-pointer by Alonzo Gaffney, Cherno more Ticha led 40:38. A precise shot by West from a long distance also shaped the final 47:43 in favor of Varna after 20 minutes of play, and Lamont West himself had already accumulated 13 points to his account.
A series of 9:4 in favor of Lokomotiv brought the team led by coach Assen Nikolov ahead, but another three-pointer by West again gave Cherno more an advantage of 54:52. The exchange of leadership continued, and three minutes before the end of the third quarter the score was tied – 59:59, after Petkov scored from distance in the basket of the Plovdiv “railwaymen“. The last better minutes for the basketball players of Cherno more Ticha, and with his third three-pointer so far Ventsislav Petkov created a lead of 66:61 for his team before the last 10 minutes.
Shortly after the start of the final part, Ioannis Kikrilis scored 3 points for Lokomotiv, which led 71:70, but the Varna team quickly regained the lead, and with another three-pointer, Georgi Boyanov made the score 75:71 in favor of Cherno more Ticha with six minutes remaining in the regular time of the match. Grant Singleton was accurate from long distance for 84:83 in favor of the Plovdiv team a minute and 40 seconds before the end, and West from the penalty line scored twice for 85:84 for Cherno more. With 34 seconds remaining, Varna had an 88:87 lead, both teams missed on their last attacks and Cherno More Ticha rejoiced with a second consecutive trophy of the competition.
Lamont West was the most productive for the success with 20 points and 5 rebounds. Georgi Boyanov contributed with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists, and Ventsislav Petkov added 13 points and 4 assists.
Krastomir Mihov finished with 18 points and 4 assists for Plovdiv, for whom the final was the first in the club's history, while Deverle Ramsey accounted for 17 points and 8 assists.
Lamont West from Cherno More Ticha was chosen as the most valuable player of the tournament.