Valencia Basket — BC Khimki — 85-83 (23-24, 23-20, 17-20, 22-19)

BC Khimki: Shved (22 + 5 assists), Honeycutt (15 + 3 rebounds), Anderson (12 + 7 rebounds), Gill (8 + 7 rebounds + 2 blocks), Markovic (7 + 8 assists + 3 rebounds + 2 steals), Todorovic (6 + 2 steals), Jenkins (5), Monya (3), Zubkov (3), Thomas (2 + 4 rebounds), Vyaltsev, Zaytsev.

POST-GAME

Georgios Bartzokas, BC Khimki head coach:

“It was an interesting and tough game for both teams. Both teams had a chance to win. Basically we lost because our execution on offense at the end wasn’t good. We took some shots without any patience. During the game we moved the ball well, always had a chance to score easy baskets, hit open threes. We had a lot of open looks with this kind of basketball. At the end we stopped doing that, and gave Valencia a chance to make crucial baskets to win the game. Congratulations to Valencia. For us one conclusion we can have from this game is that you need to defend better, especially in away games, if you want to win. We were not so solid and consistent on defense. We lost our concentration and executed badly on offense at the end, but basically, we need to defend better”.

Marko Todorovic, BC Khimki center:

“This is one of those games you lose and don't want to think you should win by 20 because they had too many open shots and situations to score easy points. In the end you lose the game and it's not a good opportunity for us. But we also have many games ahead of us to win, so we shouldn't think anymore about this game, just to improve our defense that we played badly. We made many defensive mistakes, so we have to play better defense next games. Maybe tonight they played with the less pressure and much confidence as they had to step us in the absence of some players to cover them. I think, Valencia did a good job”.

Photos by Miguel Ángel Polo / Valencia Basket