By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
One massively erupting performance by a specific super-scorer, boosted Unics Kazan (21-3) on the road against Khimki Moscow (16-8), while CSKA Moscow (24 – 2) coped well enough on the road without the two pillars of its offense.
It was the VTB derby and was, more or less, decided by one player’s top performance. Keith Langford looked lava-made in the beginning of the game between Khimki Moscow and Unics Kazan. The American combo guard finished the period with 23 points (!), setting a new VTB record for most pointed scored by a player in a single quarter, helping his team get an early lead of 18, 13 – 31. But coach Kurtinaitis’ players successfully adapted their defense in order to put a stop to his actions, cutting the deficit to 10 at the end of the first half.
However, Unics always found solutions to keep its opponents back. At least until the very last seconds when a three-pointer by Alexey Shved made it 84 – 87, bringing once again life to planet Khimki. The Russian point guard also had a chance to seriously lit the game afterwards, when he won a foul in an attempt from downtown, with the score 84 – 88, but he only made 1/3 from the line, thus ending his team’s hopes. This victory keeps Unics in the second place and Khimki is now fifth.
Without Nando De Colo and Milos Teodosic, CSKA faced some problems against Enisey (8-15) on the road in the beginning of the game, and not only. Even when coach Itoudis’ team got a 15-point lead in the beginning of the final period, the hosts made a 10-0 run and things began getting intense. But Cory Higgins, Pavel Korobkov and Aaron Jackson prevented the upset and led their team to win.
Nizhny Novgorod (14-10) looked in superb shape before its mid-week Eurocup obligations, offensively outplaying Lokomotiv Kuban (17-6) and winning the game perhaps more easily than what the final score suggests. Dmitry Khvostov generally confirmed once again his quality as a “floor general”… and not only. When “Loko” started to mean danger in the last minute of the match, the Russian guard scored a huge basket from downtown, making the score 90 – 82 and then added some key free throws in the final seconds to seal the final outcome.
We almost witnessed the surprise of the… year in Tbilisi, where local Vita (0-25) almost took its first win in the season against Zenit St. Petersburg (14-4). Yet Kaspars Berzins made a difference in the end for the Russian team to put the cherry on top of a generally sublime personal performance.
VTB League 2015/2016 – March 13
Astana – Nymburk (Vojtech Hruban 22 p. 6 r.): 63 – 98
Khimki Moscow – Unics Kazan (Keith Langford 38 p. 5 a.) : 85 – 90
Enisey – CSKA Moscow (Joel Freeland 26 p. 6 r.): 81 – 96
Nizhny Novgorod (Dmitry Khvostov 26 p. 5 a.) – Lokomotiv Kuban: 96 – 91
Vita Tbilisi – Zenit St. Petersburg (Kaspars Berzins 26 p. 13 r.) : 84 – 90
Avtodor Saratov (Paul Stoll 15 p. 12 a.) – Tsmoki Minsk: 98 – 85