By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Khimki Moscow Region welcomed the new Turkish Airlines Euroleague season with an 89-83 triumph at home against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
A terrific start into the new season for Alexey Shved and Anthony Gill that both led Rimas Kurtinaitis’ team in this first contest of a long campaign. Shved ended the game with 22 points, while Anthony Gill filled the stats sheet with 18 points, six rebounds and four assists across 23 minutes on the court.
“We had some problems with our playmakers because Jovic was injured and we had to finish with Alexey Shved as our one man. And it’s not easy for him to play 30 minutes because in preseason he was injured and practiced by himself, and 30 minutes on the court in a EuroLeague game is not easy to stay on the court. But anyway, we saved the result with what we did in the third quarter, and I’m happy for the victory”, commented Rimas Kurtinaitis after the game.
The first game of the season was meant to end in a dramatic way. Maccabi managed to trim double-digit deficits throughout the game, as Yovel Zoosman made it a four-point game with 31” on the clock. Khimki’s Jonas Jerebko stepped in with a crucial steal with 19 seconds left, giving Khimki a huge breather, as it was followed by a short 9-0 run en route to victory.
Khimki was in control for the entire first half, and the deficit climbed to double digits in the second one, as Jonas Jerebko and Alexey Shved also checked themselves in the game. On the other end of the court, Maccabi struggled with their overall shooting, only finding their way to the basket with Tarik Black (17 points) and Omri Casspi (13 points) until a short run in the third period allowed them to reduce to four points (60-56, 27′).
“We didn’t start the game well, we missed layups and we allowed them to score 48 points in the first half”, said Maccabi coach Giannis Sfairopoulos after the game. “We have to play better, we have to learn from this game. If we had a better shooting day on the outside, I think we had more chances to win. This is only the beginning, there are players in our team without experience in such games cause they are young, or they just came from the NBA and need to adapt”.
And speaking about the NBA, it was a special game for Jerebko, who made his EuroLeague debut at 32 after nearly 10 years in the NBA:
A unique occasion for Casspi as well, who returned to Maccabi and the EuroLeague after 10 long years in the NBA as well.
Check out the highlights of the first EuroLeague game for this season.
Photo credit: EuroLeague