By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona Lassa squad showed character as they bounced back multiple times against Khimki Moscow Region and eventually grabbed an 83-74 home win in the last round of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season.
Pierre Oriola led the victors with 14 points followed by Kyle Kuric’s 13 while Ante Tomic and Adam Hanga scored 12 points each.
For Khimki, Charles Jenkins and Sergey Monia scored 13 points each while Andrey Zubkov scored 11 points – all of it in the first quarter.
Khimki had a great start of the game as they nailed six shots from deep in the first quarter (32-21) and led by Zubkov’s 11 points went ahead 41-26. However, Barcelona ‘flipped the switch’ and with an 18-2 run took over the lead at halftime (44-43).
The game stayed balanced after the break but Khimki had a slight upper hand and a 58-54 lead in front of the final period. Barcelona opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run and later on made a 14-2 run (79-68) which broke Khimki’s resistance and decided the game.
This match had no impact on the standings as Barcelona (18-12) already secured the fifth spot while Khimki (9-21) was out of the playoffs race for a while.
“We finished the season with a win but now we start a new season, not only in EuroLeague but also in Endesa League. This game was very important for us, to see one more time how we should play basketball. Only to win is not enough for me but I expect that my team will learn from this game and after past six months I think that everybody understands that without individual responsibility in defense, we are an average team. If we play like in the second quarter, with defense, we look like an excellent team”, coach Svetislav Pesic explained.