Βy Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Khimki has high ambitions and proved it against the defending champions. The Russians beat Real Madrid 84-70, which lost one more official game after the Supercopa semifinal against Unicaja and Liga Endesa’s opener vs Valencia.
Marko Todorovic with 15 points and 8 rebounds alongside James Augustine led the charge for the winners, while Alexey Shved, Tyrese Rice and Sergey Monya also scored in double digits.
Augustine finished the first half with 10 points and 7 rebounds and the hosts had a 43-32 lead at the end of the first 20 minutes. Real suffered by a mediocre shooting day and also had huge issues in the paint which weren’t solved until the end of the game. In the 25th minute Khimki was leading by 26 points (59-43) and had 29 rebounds against 20 of Real.
Despite the fighting spirit of Jonas Maciulis who became the first player of the defending champs who scored 10 points in the game, Khimki had the game under control. Τhe third quarter ended with a 12 point lead (61-49) and nothing changed until the end despite 20 points scored by Sergio Llull.