By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It wasn’t a walk in the park for Khimki Moscow in Tallinn against Kalev but in the end, the Russians got a 84 – 77 win on the road to finish their 2016 obligations in a positive way.
Khimki rose to the fourth position of the VTB League standing thanks to this result, while Kalev is third from the bottom with a 2-7 record.
Jacob Pullen dropped 24 points (on 3/5 2-pointers, 4/9 from beyond the arc), Sergey Monia 16 and EJ Rowland 13 plus 7 assists and 5 rebounds for the winning side that lacked the help of Alexey Shved.
Kalev had a blazing 14 – 4 entrance in the match but its guests responded well enough to finish the first half up by six, 32 – 38. This lead was expanded to 41 – 54 but the Estonian team cut it to single digits, 53 – 58 again at the end of the third quarter. Cedric Simmons came up big for the hosts with 15 points, 10 rebounds and Vitali Liutych added 14 as much as Mark Tollefesen. Demonte Harper had 15 but shot 4/18 from the field.
Khimki managed to remain at a distance, albeit not a safe one, until the final horn sounded in “Saku Arena”.
Yesterday, Zenit St. Petersburg didn’t face any problem against Astana at home, winning 99 – 72 on 22 points by Artem Vikrov. Roderick Odom had 18 points plus 8 rebounds for the visiting squad.