BC Khimki: Rice (21 + 6 assists), Vyaltsev (14 + 2 assists), Monya (13 + 5 rebounds + 5 assists + 5 blocks + 2 steals), Lauvergne (12 + 11 rebounds), Honeycutt (11 + 7 rebounds + 2 assists + 2 steals + 2 blocks), Koponen (9 + 3 assists + 2 rebounds + 2 steals), Pateev (4 + 5 rebounds), Sheleketo (4 + 3 rebounds), Ilnitsky (2 + 2 rebounds + 2 assists), Sakharov, N. Ivanov.

POST-GAME QUOTES

Rimas Kurtinaitis, BC Khimki head coach:

“I’m happy for this win and the way we played. In the beginning it was not easy, as we know about Zenit’s extra motivation against Khimki. We were a little bit afraid of it, but in the second half it became clear that our team had been better physically. Our defense was tenacious and strong as we allowed our opponent to score only 22 points in contrast to 46 in the first half. I would like to point out our young Russian players Ilnitsky and Pateev. Also Monya played a great game. This win allowed us to finish the first stage in first place in our group. So we carried out our task and will work further.”

Tyler Honeycutt, BC Khimki forward:

“It was a good game and a good team win especially considering the fact that our last loss was against Zenit in St Petersburg. We knew that they would come out strong. In the second half we started playing good defense. We didn’t like the last game against Zenit as we didn’t play as good as we can. For sure we wanted to gain revenge. We did a great job tonight”.

Vasily Karasev, BC Zenit head coach:

“We started the game with aggressive defense and good transition, so we succeeded after that. But as we lost Valiev and Kulagin, our rotation is short right now and we have to make over many things. Some of our bench guys can’t play at the desired level yet to beat Khimki, especially on the road. Starting from the third and fourth quarters, our leaders got a little bit tired and our defense fell apart. It was not as aggressive as in the first half and our opponent started to take over. It’s good that we managed to carry out our task for the first half."

Andrey Koshceev, BC Zenit forward:

“In the first half we played well in defense, ran fast breaks and moved the ball smart. The second half turned out to be an exact antithesis of the first one, as we couldn’t break Khimki and moved the ball badly. We lost in rebounding and eventually were down. It’s hard to play without Valiev and Kulagin as we suffer the rotation balance and feel the lack of freshness on the court. Hopefully, they will help us after the New Year.”