MBA defeated Samara on the road — 82:74 (26:15, 21:19, 12:15, 23:25).
The best scorers
Samara: Marcos Knight (18 + 6 assists), Malcolm Thomas (16 + 6 rebounds)
MBA: Timofey Yakushin (25 + 5 rebounds + 6 assists), Andrey Lopatin (13 + 6 rebounds), Ilya Platonov (10 + 7 rebounds), Evgeniy Valiev (8 + 5 rebounds + 5 steals)
Game progress
The League newcomers had a good pace before the game: with 4 wins in 7 games, Samara and MBA had 4th and 5th places in the standings. The face-to-face game was supposed to reveal which of the newcomers would be higher at the end of the round.
The guests took the lead in the start. MBA quickly increased the lead. By the middle of the starting quarter, the Moscow team had a double-digit lead already – 17:7. MBA managed to keep it until the end of the quarter and in the last seconds Andrey Lopatin, who started the game superbly, made and-one, and the guests lead became twofold – 26:13.
Samara started the second quarter better. A 8:0 run by Marcos Knight and Anton Kardanakhishvili helped the hosts to catch up. MBA concentrated on shots in the paint and responded with their run. Ilya Platonov had a great segment – after his long-range shot, the difference in the score has already reached 16 points. The first half ended with a large guests lead — 47:34.
However, Samara did not give up. Sergey Bazarevich team again started the third quarter with effective shots. Malcolm Thomas and James Ennis successfully took the game in their hands and Yuri Umrikhin made a three-pointer that let the Volga team to lose only by 6 points – 49:43. Although the guests got better at end of the quarter, the 10 points difference did not allow Vasily Karasev team to relax – Samara has not lost any chances to comeback.
The key moment
By the middle of the fourth quarter, Samara almost managed to make a comeback — 66:61. There were still 4 minutes left to play. Here Voronov-Valiev duo scored 9 points in a row. However, the hosts had a reply on this: Marcos Knight with KC Rivers support forced Vasily Karasev to urgently take a timeout. After it, Timofey Yakushin made 2 lay-ups. There was no time left for the hosts’ comeback. MBA wins the fifth game of the season and surpasses Samara in the standings.
Hero
Timofey Yakushin. MBA guard played his best game in the United League: he got good stat line and his two lay-ups at the end were the keys to the win.
Numbers
5 steals is Evgeniy Valiev’s high since the 2012/13 season.
What’s next
Samara: home game against PARMA-PARI on November 11
MBA: home game versus Avtodor on November 11
