Photographer: Ekaterina Shelestova BC Khimki reps of the Higher League A Division in the last game of the National Championship hosted the match against a championship outsider, Club Volgograd Gasprom. Despite the bombastic name of the club’s sponsor, their game was less than resounding. Half the team is made up of fans, and granting credit where credit due, have given it their all to improve their mastery of the game, and give a worthy battle. Nonetheless, up to now, in the area of “victories” for the tournament, their count is an unfortunate zero wins.
Khimki 3 vs. Volgograd Gasprom: 105-56 (23-9, 22-21, 36-15, 24-11)
Top scorers: Zakharov (25), Zinchenko (16), Khrinin (15), Koscheev (11).
Khimki achieved a whopping start: 23-9, and with this, owned the scoreboard in the first half: 27-5, with medium distance shots and successful assists. The visiting team, from a six-meter distance was consistent in shots, scoring every two attempts. Meanwhile, Khimki, from the 3-point line scored with slight vehemence, which had it been otherwise, may have made the scoreboard, coming up on halftime, more impressive than the +15.
After 2 minutes into the third quarter, however, their lead climbed to +22, with Khimki tuning its performance in their long distance shots. Topping off the third quarter, their advantage climbed even higher to +36 points, and just before the siren, leaped to almost +50.
Author: Alexei Kuziashin