VTB-League.com brings you the weekend’s biggest stories.
Sold-out, ecstatic Basket Hall
Georgios Bartzoka’s first visit to Krasnodar after his shocking exit from the club in 2016 drew a record crowd: 7,400 fans sold out the Basket Hall to watch Lokomotiv battle Khimki.
The home fans were rewarded with a victory. Khimki hung around in the first half, but Kuban demonstrated in the second half why it’s ranked 1st in the League and hasn’t lost since October. Mardy Collins put up career highs in rebounds (7), assists (10) and efficiency rating (31), highlighting Loko’s unselfish, team-oriented approach that has worked wonders under Sasa Obradovic. Khimki showed signs of life early in the 4th quarter before running out of steam as Krasnodar’s vaunted defense held the visitors to only two points over the final six minutes.
7400 fans in Krasnodar 🔥🔥🔥
Season high & 2nd best result in @lokobasket history! pic.twitter.com/vzFhqrrbeX
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) January 21, 2018
Kuban remains all alone in 1st place, though several teams are nipping at its heels. Khimki drops even further back of the lead pack at 6-5, splitting 5th place with Avtodor.
Kalev’s transformation
There were a lot of close games on Saturday in the League. Enisey led almost the entire way against Kalev before the visitors got hot at the right moment. Branko Mirkovic put Kalev on top with a 5-0 run, 91-88, with a minute and a half to play and Enisey’s offense sputtered in crunch time. Three misses from beyond the arc in the final 12 seconds were the final nail in the coffin for Krasnoyarsk. It seemed unlikely at the time, but Mirkovic’s triple with more than a minute to go proved to be the game-winner.
Several seasons back, Donaldas Kairys led Tsmoki-Minsk to a strong start in the League. This time around, he’s been asked to rescue a team that was 1-6 when he signed on. Since then, Kalev has gone 3-3 and moved to within a half game of the final playoff spot. Will he be able to maintain the momentum in the second half of the season?
Two overtimes in Saratov
Avtodor and Astana played an extra ten minutes in Saratov in the first double-overtime game of the season. No one wanted to lose.
“People usually need some anti-stress medication after a game like this. When you win, though, it’s a great feeling,” Avtodor head coach Evgeny Pashutin was relieved by his team’s victory.
Branden Frazier was the hero for Avtodor, making all the big plays for Saratov down the stretch. His offense at the end of double-overtime gave Avtodor the decisive advantage.
Kuric rescues Zenit
Vasily Karasev used to play in front of sold-out crowds in Perm, so he knew what he was talking about when he told his players that a trip to the Molot is always a test, especially when you’re playing without Drew Gordon and Sergey Karasev. Zenit made adjustments on the fly, though it took a 16-point deficit in the second half to get the Blue-White-Sky Blues going. Kyle Kuric was the hero, scoring a VTB League career-high 33 points to lead the team to victory.
Zenit remains in the race for 1st place, while PARMA stays in 8th place despite the defeat.
CSKA bounces back
CSKA suffered its first losing streak in the League in years, dropping back-to-back games to Lokomotiv-Kuban and Zenit. The Army Men were without Nando De Colo vs. Nizhny Novgorod, but did welcome Leo Westermann back from a nearly three-month absence due to injury. The Frenchman played an active part in the win, but the most credit goes to Andrey Vorontsevich. The Russian forward was 6-6 from the field, including 5-5 from beyond the arc, matching the League record for most 3-pointers without a miss among Russian players (Evgeny Kolesnikov has done it twice).
CSKA is back, though it never really went anywhere.
