In FIBA Europe League action this evening, Group A leader BC Kyiv won easily 94-71 against the visitors of CSKA Sofia.

BC Kyiv started the game strong with a 8-0 run, built off of superb defense and top-notch shooting. However, Christopher Garnett’s aerial play and dominance in the key for CSKA Sofia turned things around, and the visitors had a six-point lead at the end of the first quarter (21-27).

In the second quarter Coach Renato Pasquali experimented with his defensive sets and Kyiv started to inch their way back. In the middle of the second quarter the visitors suffered two unfortunate injuries. Key players, Dimitar Angelov and Christopher Garnett, both went down with similar ankle injuries and had to leave the game.

Despite the two injuries, CSKA Sofia started the third quarter with a three-point lead (37-40). However BC Kyiv came out of the locker room charged up, and went on a run which the visitors were never able to recover from.

Garnett returned to action temporarily for Sofia, but due to the pain was unable to keep up with his first half's performance. One could see that with limited number of healthy substitutes, CSKA’s players were getting fatigued and it was difficult for them to stop BC Kyiv’s fast breaks.

Renato Pasquali had many more options on his bench and used this to his advantage. Reserve guard, Andrii Lebediev, had his best game of the season scoring a game-high 21 points. He was a major contributor in BC Kyiv’s 14-5 run at the end of the 3rd quarter which gave the home team a comfortable lead. 

The fourth quarter of play proved to be too much for the Bulgarian visitors. They managed to hold Kyiv’s lead to 15 points for the first half of the quarter, however due to a complete lack of energy BC Kyiv won convincingly 94-71.