Balkan Botevgrad has recorded its first EuroCup victory, beating Bosna Telecom 78–69 away in Sarajevo. The game was played on 4 November and gives the Bulgarian side a breakthrough after a difficult start to its group campaign.
Javante McCoy led Balkan with 27 points, while Aleksandar Stoimenov added 22. Gael Bonilla contributed a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The three performances gave the visitors both scoring and a stronger presence around the basket.
Rebounding helped decide it
Balkan won the rebounding battle 41–29 and converted 71.1% of its two-point attempts, against 43.5% for the home side. Those figures help explain the result more clearly than the final margin alone: the Bulgarian team combined control of missed shots with efficient finishing inside the arc.
Reginald Perry scored 21 points and took six rebounds for Bosna. Balkan’s win takes its group record to one victory and five defeats, so the historic success does not remove the consequences of the earlier losses.
A result to build on
The next scheduled challenge is a home game against PAOK on 10 November. That gives the team a chance to turn a first win into momentum rather than treating Sarajevo as the end of the task.
For Bulgarian club basketball, the significance is a result on the road in a competition where each possession and scoring run can change a group campaign. One victory is not evidence of a completed turnaround, but it gives Balkan a concrete performance to repeat: rebounding, productive interior shooting and scoring contributions beyond a single player. The standings remain demanding even as the team gains its first reward.
