Khimki Moscow Region outlasted Enisey Krasnoyarsk at home, 72-64 (16-21, 19-17, 20-15, 17-11).
Top Scorers
Khimki: Alexey Shved (23), E.J. Rowland (15+5 reb), Sergey Monia (14)
Enisey: Frank Elegar (17+19 reb), Vasily Zavoruev (12+5 ast)
Turning Point
Khimki didn’t swing the momentum in the game until the 3rd quarter, but even then Enisey kept it close. Leading by two, 61-59, with less than six minutes remaining, E.J. Rowland (five points) and Alexey Shved (a big 3-pointer) were able to stretch it to 10.
Krasnoyarsk got as close as five in the final minutes, but couldn’t stop Khimki from picking up a third straight win.
Stat
68 – Khimki’s starters scored 68 points with the bench contributing just four.
Quotes
Khimki head coach Dusko Ivanovic:
– We didn’t start this game the way we should have. Enisey is a very good team and has excellent perimeter shooting. They are also great on the glass. If you don’t play strong and focused against a team like that, they can beat anyone. We had a chance today because we changed our approach and fixed our defense in the second half. We won thanks to our defense. Before halftime, we had a lot of problems in the halfcourt offense. We needed to play quicker in order to get easy points. In the end, it made everything easier for us. The game was very even. Enisey constantly switched things up on defense and offense. They have a terrific big man in Elegar, who can shut down the paint. In the first half, we only had three two-point field goals out of 19. It’s tough to win with a percentage like that. We need to fix that going forward.
Enisey head coach Oleg Okulov:
– The game was interesting for the fans. It’s not the best result for us, though if you compare rosters, it’s obvious that Khimki has a different makeup. My team worked and tried really hard. Some unnecessary mistakes and a few bad shots gave Khimki a chance to pull away. Nonetheless, we didn’t gave up, kept fighting, but Khimki’s individual talent allowed them to win.
Snapshot
Up Next
Khimki: November 20 vs. Nizhny Novgorod
Enisey: November 20 at Astana
