The first match of the quarterfinal series of the VTB United League between Khimki and BC ‘’Astana”’ took place in Moscow, following which the capital team was defeated — 82:59 (24:17, 15:17, 22:13, 21:12).
This series began last, and in three others the first matches were already over: “UNICS ” beat “Kalev”(92:82) at home, CSKA Moscow figured out Nizhny Novgorod (87:50), and BC “Zenit” upset “Lokomotive”(69:78).
In this series, “Khimki” are favourites and were clearly determined to win the first match. It was the hosts who won the toss and in the first offense opened the scoring in the game. Jeffrey Grossell equalized the score first, and after 30 seconds, brought Astana to the front. However, the Kazakh team was not long in the lead, and already in the next possession, the team from Khimki took the lead again. For a while, Astana held close to the opponents, but in the middle of the first quarter they missed 10-0 run by the Khimki. Until the end of the quarter, our team was able to recoup a bit, but eventually lost the first quarter with a score of 24:17. The second period began with mutual mistakes. Even though the hosts scored points again, the first half of the second quarter was clearly going the way our coaching staff planed. To the equator of the period, only 2 points remained from the 10-point deficit, but, unfortunately, the Kazakhs failed to catch up with their rivals, and those in turn were able to stop our breakthrough. The game before the fifteen-minute break was tough and hard, and as a result, Astana won the second period — 15:17, but lost the first half of the match — 39:34.
In the third quarter, the capital team began to experience difficulties, and they allowed rivals to increase the lead. In less than 2 minutes, the advantage of the Khimki team exceeded the mark of 10 points and continued to increase, but Astana did not give up and tried to catch up all possible ways. BC “Khimki”, led by Alexei Shved, confidently played their game and, although not as fast as they would like, but increased their handicap, which by the end of the third quarter reached 16 points — 61:47. Confidence in the game from the host club increased significantly, and BC “Astana”, on the contrary, slipped a little. Emil Rajkovic’s players continued to do everything possible and impossible and did not give up. Nevertheless, the players of “Khimki” fully controlled the situation, who not without difficulty, but still got to the figure of +20. They had to maintain their advantage for another 5 minutes, and their goal for today has been achieved, while the chances of a victory for the Kazakhstan team have almost completely disappeared. And so that our squad would not do, nothing saved them from defeat today. As a result, “Khimki” won the first game of the series with a score of 82:59.
“Astana” defended very well, and it was noticeable that majority of “Khimki” possessions were rather difficult, especially in the first half of the game. Our team did miss quite a lot of fast break opportunities. Also on the hand of the Kazakh team played the leaders of “Khimki”, who clearly could not find his game in the first half. But after the big break, “His Majesty” — Alexei Shved began to justify his prize “The best scorer of the league season 2018/2019”, which he received right before the match. The players of BC “Astana”, no matter how hard they tried, could not stop Alexey, who became the main “creator” of victory for his team.
The most productive:
- BC “Khimki”: Aleksey Shved (27 + 5 assists), Malcolm Thomas (10 + 8 rebounds), Andrey Zubkov (7 + 7 rebounds)
- BC “Astana”: Jeffrey Grossell (11 + 7 rebounds), Anthony Clemmons (10), Kenneth Horton (6 + 7 rebounds)
The head coach of «Astana» — Emil Rajkovich:
- Congratulations to BC “Khimki”, today they were the best team. They took advantage of deep rotation and maintained a high level of intensity throughout the match. In the second half, we did not have same energy level, we “ran out of gas”, and in the end BC “Khimki” was led in the 1-0 series.
The head coach of «Khimki» — Rimas Kurtinaitis:
- Glad to end up with a victory. At the beginning of the match it was not easy, as there was still some kind of excitement, but we quickly coped with it. They played well and, first of all, I would like to note the defence. Probably the first time in the season we played so well in defence and did not let the opponent score more than 60 points. In a word, they fought, won the selection and showed what they needed. We look forward to the next match.
The next match of the series will take place on Tuesday — May 7, also on Khimki’s home site, starting at 23:00 Nur-Sultan. We remind you that
Ticketon.kz has already opened the sale of tickets for the «Astana» home match against «Khimki» within the quarter finals of the VTB United League, which will be held on Friday May 10 at the Saryarka track arena according to the capital time.
Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and results of matches are published in the section
Tournaments.
