By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Six games were featured this week in the VTB United League and the away teams grabbed wins in five of them with Khimki Moscow being the only squad to protect the home court.
Alexey Shved posted 19 points and eight assists for Khimki which logged a 79-74 win against Avtodor and stayed comfortable at the top with an 18-1 record.
Thomas Robinson added 16 and Anthony Gill ten points. For Avtodor, Orlando Johnson scored 18 in addition to Markel Starks’ 11 points. Mouhammadou Jaiteh and Mouhammad Faye covered the boards with 15 and ten respectively.
Earlier, in the Game of the Week, CSKA Moscow overcame Lokomotiv Kuban with a late surge in front of a sold-out crowd.
Zenit, Zielona Gora and Kalev step into the playoff zone
It has been a crowded race for the bottom four spots (5-8) that lead to the playoffs and seven teams have their eyes on the post-season ticket.
Although it’s still far from over, Zenit, Zielona Gora and Kalev grabbed temporarily the sixth, seventh and eighth spot while PARMA -which didn’t play this week – stayed at the fifth. However, despite getting slowed down, Astana, Nizhny Novgorod and Enisey follow in that order and with just one win behind.
Zenit got past Enisey thanks to Austin Hollins’ 15 and Andrey Zubkov’s 14 points while Kalev prevailed over Astana led by Kyle Vinales’ 26 and Janari Joessar’s 23 points. Joessar also grabbed 11 boards.
Zielona Gora’s win came against Tsmoki-Minsk with Tony Meier (21 points) and George King (12 points, 11 boards) leading the way.
Battle for the third spot
Errick McCollum with 23 and Jordan Theodore with 21 points helped UNICS beat Nizhny and are now catching up with Lokomotiv Kuban at the third spot.
Lokomotiv holds a 13-6 record and won the first clash by a nine-point margin, however, UNICS follows with 12-6 and will have a chance to make up for the potential tiebreaker on March 28 in the sides’ rematch.
VTB Weekly results and scorers
Nizhny – UNICS 83-95 (Baburin 17 – McCollum 23)
Tsmoki – Stelmet 73-80 (Stabrouski 20 – Meier 21)
Astana – Kalev 78-83 (Holt 19 – Vinales 26)
Enisey – Zenit 67-84 (Zakharov 19 – Hollins 15)
Lokomotiv – CSKA 71-77 (Cummings 17 – James 16)
Khimki – Avtodor 79-74 (Shved 19 – Johnson 18)
VTB Standings
1. Khimki 18-1
2. CSKA 15-4
3. Lokomotiv 13-6
4. UNICS 12-6
5. PARMA 8-10
6. Zenit 8-10
7. Stelmet 8-11
8. Kalev 8-11
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9. Astana 7-11
10. Nizhny 7-11
11. Enisey 7-11
12. Avtodor 5-13
13. Tsmoki 4-15
Photo Credit: VTB United League