Top Scorers: Wolkowiski (18), Okulaja (15), Lampe (12), McCarty (12), Fridzon (12), Diatchok (12), Booker (11), Veremeenko (11).

This was Surgut’s last chance to get in on the play offs, however, the numerous injuries they have suffered lately practically cancelled all hopes of Universitet reaching the two clubs in the 7th and 8th places in the standings of the regular stages.

BC Khimki and Universitet Yugra’s players is one of friendly familiarity in the Russian Championship, being that four former basketball players from the yellow-n-blues now play for the greens, while Surgut’s former leader Vladimir Diatchok now plays for Khimki. Despite the b-ball player’s having met up on the eve of the game, they had still some things left to chat about. Khimki fans hadn’t forgotten Karasev and Dedoushkin, giving them a warm welcome when they hit the court, as they did Ershov and Vuksanovic who, injured, watched from the bleachers.

Khimki’s traditional line-up: Booker, Fridzon, McCarty, Veremeenko, Lampe.

Before tip off the 1972-Olympic champ, and current vice director general of BC Khimki, San Sanych Boloshev, was celebrated for his 60th birthday, launching a symbolic toss. After this the home team, right from the start took the lead: 10-4. When the score hit 20-10 the visiting team coaches caleld a time out. Later the Khimki roster was changed completely at minute 9, but their lead did not wane, and remained two-fold.

In the playmaker one on one two St. Petersburg home towners faced off, the seasoned Vasily Karasev against the rookie Alexei Shved. Not only did Alexei not flinch when up against the renowned Karasev, he also made time to entertain the fans with some fantastic assists, which unfortunately did not bare fruit. The “authority” didn’t let the visitors gain an advantage, and 2 minutes into the game’s restart Universitet Coach Sergey Olhov called a second time out when the count reached: 18-40. Nonetheless, the Moscow Region team, under the guidance of Ademola Okulaja, “The Oak,” could not be stopped. The big guys from Surgut could not get past their rival, mustering only 9 rebounds against Khimki’s 23.

BC Khimki Coach Kestutis Kemzura then called a time out when the gap reached +30, evidently to tone his players a bit. They were full out in the defense and where stealing at every turn.

During half time the Boloshev was given another salute, and BC Khimki President Alexei Bodunkov, chief of the Urban District of Khimki Sergey Strelchenko, the club’s director general Victor Bychkov, Russian Federation of Basketball director Karen Pogosian, and a close friend and former Olympic champ Ivan Edeshko, all grouped to honor St. Sanych with words and gifts. Meanwhile, the sports group from the City of Khimki, Svetlyachok, performed a dance in honor of his birthday.

After half time the panorama remained unchanged, and after two shots by Vladimir Veremeenko the lead was reaching +40, forcing the visiting team’s coaches to take a minute down. This, however, was a mere breather, and the yellow-n-blues swept the first 3.5 minutes of the second half: 12-0. With 3.41 to go to the third break, Coach Kemzura asked for a time out, when a3-pointer by Booker and a shot by Savkov, took the yellow-n-blues’ lead to an colossal 53 points.

Although in their first offense in the final quarter Universitet was able to breach the gap a bit, it was not enough, as the fugitives had taken off, exceeding 100 on their scoreboard. Ademola Okulaja took Khimki over the 100 mark, becoming the sixth player for the team to score more than 10 points. Later the markers showed double digits for points scored by Fridzon and Diatchok (eight players reached the Grand Master score). The home team stayed on their winning course until the game’s end and let the starting line up rest easy on the bench.