Khimki defeated Enisey at home in Game 2 of the quarterfinals, 109-81 (22-24, 30-18, 31-22, 26-17).
Top Scorers
Khimki: Alexey Shved (26+7 ast), Jacob Pullen (12), Marko Todorovic (10+8 reb), Egor Vyaltsev (10)
Enisey: Suleiman Braimoh (23+14 reb), Igor Kanygin (14), Tony Taylor (11), Alexander Martynov (10)
Build-Up
Big starts from Suleiman Braimoh and Anthony Hilliard gave the visitors a 24-22 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.
But the home team didn’t need much time to respond, outscoring Enisey 14-2 to open the 2nd quarter. Alexey Shved, who finished with a game-high 26 points, led the way with six points during the run.
Entering halftime, Khimki enjoyed a 10-point advantage, 52-42.
Turning Point
Another hot start put Moscow Region on top by 19, 66-47, with 6:07 remaining in the 3rd quarter. Enisey would never threaten again, failing to get closer than 14 points in the remaining 16 minutes.
Playing without star center Frank Elegar, the visitors struggled to control the paint like in Game 1, while Khimki shot 10-22 from outside en route to 109 points.
Moscow Region takes a 2-0 lead in the series, while Enisey hopes a return to Krasnoyarsk can help spark some magic.
Star
Alexey Shved. Once again, Khimki’s Russian playmaker came up big, scoring 26 points on efficient 10-16 shooting. He also added seven assists and three rebounds.
Stat
20 – Khimki outscored Enisey by 20 in the paint, neutralizing the Krasnoyarsk big men.
Video
Khimki vs Enisey Game 2 one minute highlights 📽 pic.twitter.com/ke6kJ43ZH9
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) May 6, 2017
Quotes
Khimki head coach Dusko Ivanovic:
– We didn’t start this game very well. Several players saw that Elegar was out and played relaxed and unfocused. The second half was different. We started playing much better. It was very important to get the second win and now we head to Krasnoyarsk aiming to win. Elegar’s presence on the court made us play much more serious and focused, but when he didn’t start the game, we played very differently. I think that was our mistake, because a serious team should play at 100% every time, no matter if there is one Elegar or 10 of them on the court.
Enisey head coach Oleg Okulov:
– We lost today, but there’s always more than one reason for any loss. We don’t have a big or deep rotation, so when we lose someone to injury, it has a big impact. Because of injuries, we lost half of our power forwards, plus Elegar was hurt in Game 1. As a result, we didn’t have many players in the frontcourt and when the team started to get tired, we had trouble. We’d hoped to get big performances from the bench, but not everything worked out. We held on for a long time, but in the end, Khimki earned the win and we didn’t have any way of countering. We held on as long as we could. This game was lost, but we still have a chance to play in Krasnoyarsk. We’ll try to take advantage.
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Up Next
Game 3: May 9 in Krasnoyarsk, 12:00 PM MSK
