Khimki closed out the VTB United Youth League Final Eight with a victory today in St. Petersburg. Moscow Region took down four-time champions CSKA-Junior in the final, 82-70.
Khimki was led by Ilya Sorokin (23 points), Ivan Evstigneev (16 points) and Sergei Klyuev (14 points). CSKA’s top scorers were Alexander Khomenko (19 points and seven rebounds), Filipp Gafurov (12 points) and Yuri Umrikhin (12 points).
Khimki-2 wins the VTB United Youth League for the second time.
“The championship of the VTB Youth League closed out the tournament in style. Despite a final margin of 12 points, the game was tight until the final minutes,” noted League president Sergey Kushchenko. “CSKA was a significant favorite, but Khimki’s effort and teamwork turned the tide. CSKA had won four in a row coming into this season. Now there’s a new champion in the VTB Youth League.
I think was the best-run and most exciting Final Eight ever. We’ll make some changes to the format, but today we saw quality coaching and players that are close to reaching the next level and joining VTB United League rosters.
Thank you to Zenit once again for organizing the Final Eight. Playing in such good conditions at a wonderful arena like SIBUR is very important for our teams and players.”
Ilya Sorokin was named the Final Eight MVP. The Khimki-2 center averaged 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists and an 18.7 efficiency rating.
Joining Ilya Sorokin on the All-Tournament team were guard Alexander Khomenko (CSKA-Junior), forward Ivan Evstigneev (Khimki-2) and centers Dmitry Khaldeev (Samara-2) and Vladislav Sharapov (Zenit-2).
Khimki-2 coach Alexander Gerasimov was named Coach of the Year.
2018-19 VTB United Youth League final standings:
1. Khimki-2 (Moscow Region)
2. CSKA-Junior (Moscow)
3. Samara-2 (Samara)
4. Avtodor-2 (Saratov)
5. Lokomotiv-Kuban-2 (Krasnodar)
6. Nizhny Novgorod-2 (Nizhny Novgorod)
7. Zenit-2 (St. Petersburg)
8. UNICS-2 (Kazan)
9. Spartak-2 (St. Petersburg)
10. Enisey-2 (Krasnoyarsk)
11. PARMA-2 (Perm)
