Khimki defeated Enisey at home, 91-84, in Game 1 of the quarterfinals (14-23, 30-21, 22-25, 25-15).
Top Scorers
Khimki: Alexey Shved (33+5 ast), E.J. Rowland (13), Marko Todorovic (9+10 reb)
Enisey: Anthony Hilliard (18+6 reb), Suleiman Braimoh (15+8 reb), Frank Elegar (14+13 reb), Tony Taylor (10+6 reb+7 ast)
Turning Point
Khimki trailed by as much as eight points early in the 4th quarter, but fought back to take a four-point lead, 82-78, with 3:04 remaining.
After Enisey tied the game at 82-apiece on four free throws, Alexey Shved made his biggest play of the game, hitting a wide-open Sergey Monia for the go-ahead 3-pointer.
At the other end, Anthony Hilliard missed a 3-pointer and Shved converted a layup to make it a five-point game with less than a minute remaining.
Recap
Khimki swept Enisey during the regular season, including a 40-point win on April 23 in Krasnoyarsk.
The visitors came out guns blazing, rocking Khimki 23-14 in the first 10 minutes.
Frank Elegar’s two handed slam 💪 pic.twitter.com/72lZj2uyle
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) May 4, 2017
Moscow Region responded by scoring 30 points in the 2nd quarter, led by 1o from Alexey Shved.
Khimki led by as much as nine in the 3rd quarter, but Enisey finished the quarter on an 18-6 run, going into the 4th quarter with a three-point lead.
Despite getting out-rebounded 48-37, Moscow Region was able to secure the victory down the stretch. Shved scored 12 in the 4th quarter, proving once again why he’s one of the leading candidates for MVP.
Stat
13-24 – Enisey struggled at the free-throw line, shooting a measly 54% after averaging 77% during the regular season.
Video
#VTBPlayoffs@Khimkibasket vs @BC_Enisey one minute highlights 📽 pic.twitter.com/pDSkWIpjRP
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) May 4, 2017
Quotes
Khimki head coach Dusko Ivanovic:
– This is the playoffs and every game is tough at this stage. That’s especially true in the first game because we had an easy win in our last regular-season game in Krasnoyarsk and it wasn’t easy to get the team to forget about that outcome. I hope today’s game was a good test prior to the next meeting. Enisey is playing great this season, especially on the offensive glass. We need to be very focused and improve our defense. Todorovic and Sokolov got in foul trouble today, which forced us to go small. But that’s not an issue of having “big” or “small” players out there. You always need to go after rebounds and battle, instead of watching where the ball drops. We watched Enisey get rebounds and fell asleep at times.
Enisey head coach Oleg Okulov:
– This was our first playoff game and we lost, but in my view it was a good game for the fans. A bunch of unnecessary mistakes at the end allowed Khimki to take advantage of its talent, which resulted in our defeat. But the playoffs are only starting and there are more games to play. We’ll try to be more disciplined in the following games.
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Up Next
Game 2: Saturday, May 6 in Khimki, 6:00 PM
