Khimki Moscow Region defeated Nizhny Novgorod on the road, 82-79 (23-19, 14-21, 24-22, 21-17).
Top Scorers
Nizhny Novgorod: Stevan Jelovac (22 + 8 reb), Artem Komolov (16), Jake Odum (11 + 8 ast)
Khimki: Alexey Shved (26), Stefan Markovic (18 + 5 ast), James Anderson (14 + 6 reb), Malcolm Thomas (14 + 8 reb)
Story
Khimki guard Alexey Shved came up clutch once again in a dramatic road win over Nizhny Novgorod. Trailing 76-75 after Stevan Jelovac’s go-ahead jumper, Shved drained a triple to put the visitors in the lead for good and added a pair of free throws in the final minute for extra insurance.
Nizhny Novgorod guard Dmitry Uzinsky missed two chances to tie the game in the final seconds, once at the line and once beyond the arc, allowing Khimki to avoid overtime.
Shved scored a game-high 26 points as Khimki overturned a three-point deficit at halftime and avoided dropping to .500.
Nizhny forward Stevan Jelovac continued his stretch of hot play, dropping 22 points on 6-12 shooting. As a team, Nizhny shot 47% from beyond the arc (11-23), but it wasn’t enough to overcome 15 turnovers and Shved’s heroics down the stretch.
Khimki improves to 9-7, regaining 5th place thanks to Avtodor’s loss to CSKA. Nizhny drops to 4-10 and 9th in the standings.
Stat
19 – number of second-chance points scored by Khimki on 13 offensive rebounds. The visitors’ surge in the final minutes was sparked by offensive rebounds. Alexey Shved scored his 3-pointer late in the game after a rebound and pass from James Anderson.
Quotes
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Zoran Lukic:
– Khimki let us play for the entire 40 minutes, but we weren’t able to take advantage of the gift, unfortunately. What can you say when your opponent scores 19 second-chance points. In the final minutes, we gave up three rebounds. From those mistakes, Khimki created opportunities to score, knocking down a 3-pointer to turn the game in their favor. That was the key point in today’s loss. If you don’t keep playing to the end, you won’t deserve to win.
Khimki head coach Georgios Bartzokas:
– Both teams wanted to win today, which is why the game was competitive from start to finish. It wasn’t easy for us to bounce back from our EuroLeague game since the schedule is beginning to wear us down physically and mentally. There wasn’t much time to prepare and recover for the game vs. Nizhny Novgorod. Plus, some of the players aren’t available right now: Honeycutt, Monia, Zubkov and Sokolov missed the game because of injuries. Given all of that, I’m satisfied with today’s win, even though it came in the final minute.
Up Next
Nizhny Novgorod: March 18 home vs. Astana
Khimki: March 11 away vs. Astana
Images of the Game
