By Antigoni Zachari / info@eurohoops.net
Just when everyone thought Zenit can’t climb back in the VTB League standings, the team proved us wrong with its excellent course these past few weeks. Meanwhile, CSKA continues to lead the course after also taking down Lokomotiv.
Let’s relive this week’s action:
MVP
Marko Simonovic, Zenit
32-year-old Simonovic showed no mercy to Khimki, tapping 22 points with four out of six from afar, plus two rebounds. Given the impact of this victory for Zenit, the Serbian forward earns a well-deserved spot in the MVP section for this past week.
Zenit shocks Khimki
Zenit got the precious win over visiting Khimki on Sunday paced by our weekly MVP Simonovic to move up to a 9-5 record with its fourth consecutive victory. The St. Petersburg side has managed to be on a roll in 2019 and can do so much more until the regular season is over. Mind you, they are the only team to have defeated both leaders of the league (they also beat CSKA in January).
CSKA gets it done vs. Lokomotiv
It wasn’t CSKA‘s usual scoring feast in Moscow this Sunday, though Dimitris Itoudis’ team used enough force to get over Lokomotiv (10-5). Nando De Colo and Daniel Hackett led the Army Team with 16 and 14 points each, while Loko struggled to find score (their discouraging 21/50 FG is a good indicator of the score).
Unics destroys Tsmoki on the road
Unics stormed past Tsmoki in Minsk with perfect teamwork that made them move up to a 12-3 record in the league. Maxim Sheleketo and Anton Ponkrashov set the mood with 18 and 16 points each, while Pierria Henry also made an impact with 13 points and six rebounds. The Kazan side bounced back from their tough loss in Novgorod and still chase CSKA and Khimki in the standings.
Results:
Tsmoki-Minsk – Unics 57-99 (Sarikopoulos 16 p. – Sheleketo 18 p.)
Parma – Nizhny Novgorod 80-85 (Zukauskas 21 p. – Strebkov 23 p.)
Avtodor – Astana 64-88 (Buford 16 p. – Horton 20 p.)
CSKA Moscow – Lokomotiv Kuban 70-57 (De Colo 16 p. – Khvostov 10 p.)
Zenit – Khimki 86-82 (Simonovic 22 p. – Mickey 22 p.)
Kalev – VEF 75-85 (Lynch 14 p. – Misters 15 p.)