By Antigoni Zachari / info@eurohoops.net
Another week of big thrills in the VTB League is now history and as always we gathered up the most useful trivia for the games that took place across Northern Europe from March 20 to March 25. CSKA‘s memorable triumph, Nizhny Novgorod’s perfect streak this week, Unics’ easy victory on the road and more in the following lines:
MVP
Nando De Colo, CSKA Moscow
The French guard was absolutely phenomenal for CSKA on the road in the broad overtime win over Astana! De Colo posted a new career-high performance of 41 points on 11-18 FG shooting, along with nine rebounds and three assists, for a total PIR of 43, the highest of any other player in Round 22. Not only that, but his 41 points are a season-high for the league as well.
CSKA’s overtime triumph with De Colo’s signature
Of course, we couldn’t start breaking down the most important games without mentioning CSKA‘s overtime win over Avtodor first! Dimitris Itoudis’ squad held on to the first place of the standings (19-3) with a huge battle and a great comeback to the game in the final quarter that eventually led the game to the extra five-minute period. And of course, De Colo was there to save the day with one of his biggest performances to date.
Janis Timma’s season-high helps Khimki down Astana
It seems as if the Latvian forward is revived in Khimki. Timma scored a season-high of 26 points to push the Moscow side to a 15-5 record in the standings. Of course, he was not alone in this effort, as Alexey Shved also stepped up with a big double-double of 22 points and 11 assists, as the hosts cruised past Astana, that fell to a 13-8 record.
Nizhny on a roll to hold on to its playoffs hopes
Nizhny was one of the two teams to play two games this week (the other being VEF) and cruised past both with ultimate success. First, they downed aforementioned VEF, then Zielona Gora followed and now the Russians can enjoy the seventh spot in the rankings with 12-8 and a four-game winning streak. Pretty impressive at this critical turn of the season!
Unics focused to turn the season tide
What if they didn’t reach the EuroCup finals, Unics is pretty strong in the VTB League and will push to hold on to its second place below CSKA, for the much-needed homecourt advantage ahead of the playoffs. The Kazan side used a statement win over VEF on the road to overcoming a tough week and moved up to a 16-4 record, thanks to the efforts of Raymar Morgan, who posted 21 points on 8-10 FG.
VTB Week 22 results:
Nizhny Novgorod – VEF 93-83 (Perry 31 p. – Mejeris 17 p.)
Enisey – Zenit 85-87 (Roberson 34 p. – Scrubb 24 p.)
Tsmoki-Minsk – Parma 80-68 (Saddler 23 p. – Bulanov 18 p.)
Nizhny Novgorod – Zielona Gora 101-61 (Komolov 24 p. – Starks 11 p.)
VEF – Unics 52-82 (Zack 15 points – Morgan 21 p.)
Avtodor – CSKA Moscow 110-116 (OT) (Golden 30 p. – De Colo 41 p.)
Khimki – Astana 93-80 (Timma 26 p. – O’Brien 19 p.)
? Турнирная таблица по итогам 22-й недели сезона
? Standings after Week #22 pic.twitter.com/hucTSzawZN
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) March 26, 2019