MBA defeated Avtodor at home — 85:70 (20:15, 28:20, 24:17, 13:18).
The best scorers
MBA: Andrey Lopatin (17 + 3 steals), Daniil Kasatkin (14), Aleksandr Khomenko (12 + 8 rebounds + 4 steals), Evgeny Voronov (10)
Avtodor: Evgenii Kolesnikov (17 + 6 rebounds), Evgeniy Minchenko (16 + 5 rebounds), Malik Newman (12)
Game progress
The sensational newcomer MBA continues to chase the Top-3. Avtodor is currently solving more modest tasks, trying to get into the playoff zone.
The Moscow team started the game significantly good and quickly got a comfortable lead. The Saratov team had a lot of missed shots, while MBA played more reliably. However, towards the end of the first 10 minutes, the guests managed to trail only by 5 points and made the Moscow team to foul twice — 20:15. At the same time, for the entire quarter, Avtodor made only 4 shots from the game and Avtodor urgently needed to score.
The second quarter showed that MBA was the only team who can score with a good percentage. Vasily Karasev team started with a 8:2 run — after Ilya Platonov made shot, the difference became double-digit for the first time – 28:17. Immediately after Avtodor time-out, Danilo Nikolic made a three-pointer, but it did not affect the game too much: the Moscow team responded with another 7:0 run and already had a 15-point lead. Ryan Boatright actions helped Avtodor to get back to 10 points difference, but Alekaandr Khomenko, who had a great quarter, set the final score of the first half — 48:35, MBA led.
In the third quarter, Avtodor tried to make a three-pointers shootout, but the Moscow team succeeded in it. After 5 points in a row from Daniil Kasatkin and Evgeny Voronov three, difference became almost hopeless for the guests — 63:42. Avtodor failed to revive the intrigue: until the end of the game, the hosts kept 18-20 points lead, only in the last minutes allowing their opponents to escape a major defeat. Having beaten Avtodor, the United League newcomer has the sixth win in nine games and equalised the wins with the reigning champion Zenit St. Petersburg.
Hero
Andrey Lopatin. The Moscow team forward shared the best scoring player of the game status with Evgenii Kolesnikov, but at the same time he did not miss single shot from the game and the free-throw line. He got 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals and became the leader of the game in +/- (+27) and efficiency (25 points).
Numbers
21 turnovers did not let Avtodor to show their offensive potential. The reason for this is the hosts excellent defense (12 steals).
What’s next:
MBA: home game against Enisey on November 16
Avtodor: home game versus Samara on November 15
