Our team managed to cope with the leaders of Union Olimpija Ljubljana and scored a confident victory in the Euroleague — 75-65 (18-19, 25-14, 13-15, 19-17). Now on Monday, November 5, 2012 BC Khimki will face on the road BC Nizhniy Novgorod.
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BC Khimki: Fridzon (20 + 4 rebounds + 2 assists), Rivers (16 + 4 rebounds), Monya (10), Loncar (8 + 7 rebounds + 2 assists), Planinic (8 + 6 assists), Koponen (5 + 3 assists), Davis (5), Nielsen (3)
Saso Filipovski, Union Olimpija Ljubljana head coach:
— I congratulate BC Khimki on the victory, today they were better. We played a good game, but didn’t score many open shots. In the first half, we could have played better on defense, but allowed our opponent to score easy points. We made many mistakes and turnovers. The key moment was in the end when BC Khimki had a 6-point lead and we had a chance to get out, but Sergey Monya made a three-pointer. Unfortunately we couldn’t make our shots.
Teemu Rannikko, Union Olimpija Ljubljana guard:
— I'm happy to be back to Khimki; I have great memories from this arena and its wonderful atmosphere. We knew that we had small chances to win this game, but we tried to play a perfect match and we did it. It was also nice to play against my friend Petteri Koponen. We faced each other for two years during my stay in Italy. We are a very young team and nobody expects much from our performance in the Euroleague. Moreover our group is very tough; we managed to win first game in Cantu, but then suffered three defeats in a row. So we’ll try to improve.
Rimas Kurtinaitis, BC Khimki head coach:
— It was not an easy thing to play against Union Olimpija, it’s a team with character, but a victory is a victory. I’m happy with the win, but our game leaves much to be desired right now; we have a lot of things to be worked at. BC Khimki didn’t succeed in rebounding and didn’t play aggressively on defense. We had some problems with our centers: it looked like they played 60 games, but the season has just started.
Sergey Monya, BC Khimki forward:
— The main point is our victory because in case of a defeat, the situation of our team would have been pitiable. We probably underestimated our opponent, especially big guy Aron Baynes – he scored 20 points only in the first half. He gave us a lot of trouble under the hoop and in rebounding. To cut a long story short, it’s great we won after two road defeats, the mood within the team has become better. Hopefully in the next games we will obtain only positive results.