By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Khimki Moscow doubled its wins in the EuroLeague regular season by beating Baskonia 79-76 at home. This result marked the first season loss for the Basque side.
The quartet of Alexey Shved (21 points, six assists, 1/8 triples), Janis Timma (18 points), Jeremy Evans (17 points, six rebounds) and Devin Booker (14 points) paced Khimki to a victory.
The Russian side led by 16 (39-23) before Baskonia erased that deficit to make it a one-point game (49-48) in the third period.
“We had a couple of turnovers, missed a couple of shots and let our opponents come back to the game”, said Khimki coach Rimas Kurtinaitis after the game. “But anyway, I am happy that in the fourth quarter we controlled the game. The result is not so big but all the way we were on top so I am happy about the victory. With turnovers and missed shots, Baskonia had the opportunity to run, and everybody knows in Europe that when Baskonia runs, they are really dangerous. I think our plan that we prepared, to push them to a position game, it worked and for sure we won.”
However, Tornike Shengelia’s (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Pierria Henry’s efforts (17 points, five steals) weren’t enough for Baskonia.
Khimki retained an advantage and with 54 seconds left, Booker handed his team a 77 – 69 lead from which there was no turning back.
Bad shooting night
“I think that the key today was our terrible free throw percentage and also three-point shots”, said Baskonia coach Velimir Perasovic. “It is difficult to win the game when you have this kind of percentage. Our problem was with free throws. We had a lot of good situations in which we drew a lot of fouls, but we had a very bad free throw percentage. In 15 minutes, Fall scored 9 points and drew 9 fouls.” Baskonia made just 4/20 threes (20%) and 18/33 free throws (54,5%).
Photo credit: EuroLeague