SOFIA (Basketball Champions League) – A 10-0 run in the final frame lifted Lukoil Academic Sofia to a 75-72 win over CSM Oradea at home in the first leg of their Qualification Round 2 tie on Tuesday. The return leg takes place on Thursday evening in Romania.

The Bulgarian champions jumped in the driver’s seat early on but the Romanian visitors switched to a 2-3 zone defence late in the opening quarter to close down their paint and Academic failed to make the most of their open looks from long-range as they started on 2-of-4 three-point shooting but went 2-of-11 in the remainder of the first half.

Oradea seized initiative before the interval and led by as many as eight points in the third quarter, but Danny Gibson sunk a triple and Filip Videnov followed his example to bring Academic ahead 67-66 with 5:29 remaining to play. The hosts got two more stops on defence and Steve Zack scored with back-to-back baskets to cap-off the 10-0 run that gave Academic a 71-66 lead with 3:29 left on the clock.

Maksym Korniienko turned into a constant nightmare for the Oradea defence close to the rim and finished with a near double-double of 18 points and nine rebounds while Hristo Zahariev scored 10 of his 17 points in the first frame and added four boards and six assists in an all-round display.