| Khimki received a ticket to the ULEB Cup Today in Khimki, the basketball club of the same name and the capital’s army team will play the Russian Cup in a head-to-head meeting. In the semi-finals, the hosts of the arena won with a minimal advantage over Dynamo near Moscow - 81:80, CSKA prevailed over UNICS Kazan - 77:63.
The Final Four was opened by the current trophy holders and a club from the capital of Tatarstan. Italian coach Ettore Messina's team gave up only at the beginning of the game, when after accurate shots from Lithuanians Krzysztof Lavrynovic and Saulius Stombergas, Kazan led with a score of 8:1. Two consecutive three-pointers from Langdon and Panov allowed CSKA to significantly reduce the gap, and at the end of the opening quarter, Belgian center Thomas van den Spiegel evened the score. At the end of the second period, the army team took a sharp lead, scoring nine unanswered points in a row, and after a long break they finished off the opponent, securing an advantage of 17 points.
CSKA, which at the end of April will once again fight for the ULEB Euroleague trophy in the Prague “Final Four” of the main continental tournament, did not at all intend to save strength in the meeting with UNICS. Perhaps the capital's basketball players should have taken care of themselves a little. For example, Slovenian forward Matjaz Smodis, who left the court in the middle of the match and never appeared again due to a back injury. The winning captain Sergei Panov again confirmed his reputation as a real cup fighter, becoming the most productive in his team - 17 points. For UNICS, Belarusian Egor Meshcheryakov, who entered the game from the bench, scored 18 points. Alas, due to the early start of this match (at 16:00 on a working day), only one and a half thousand spectators witnessed it.
“We lost Smodis due to injury, but both Panov and young Kurbanov acted excellently in his position,” Messina stated after the match. “I liked how the guys played, we showed beautiful basketball, and we dealt with the enemy snipers defensively.” UNICS head coach Stanislav Eremin spoke more than respectfully of his former team: “To play with CSKA at least on an equal footing, you need to work on the court with an A plus. We looked normal only for about eight minutes after the opening throw-in, then we lost our game. In my opinion, the key moment of the match was Langdon's two hits early in the third quarter. When you lose ten or more points, it is very difficult to change the course of the match.”
On the eve of the Final Four, the head of the Russian Basketball Federation (RFB) Sergei Chernov said that a decision had been made according to which the winner of the country's Cup would automatically receive a ticket to the ULEB Cup. Accordingly, if CSKA, which has a multi-year contract to play in the Euroleague, becomes the owner of the trophy, then the finalist of the national Cup will perform in the second most important tournament in the Old World. Thus, a ticket to the ULEB Cup was at stake in the second meeting of the tournament in Khimki.
The price of the match and responsibility to their fans, who filled the stands almost to capacity, clearly put pressure on Khimki. In the ninth minute, the “blue and white” were in the lead by seven points - 26:19, but Alexander Petrenko’s long-range shot did not allow them to build on their success. Then there was a “swing” - first one team took the lead, then the other, but the gap never exceeded six points. Everything was decided in a tense ending. Booker brought Khimki ahead with a hit from behind the six-meter line, followed by a double exchange of accurate shots, and Dynamo, losing one point, had only 20 seconds left to attack. The hosts had not yet used up the limit of personal remarks during the period and fouled twice, and these violations were not punished with penalties. Petrenko managed to cover Valery Daineko's shot, and Khimki's Slovenian legionnaire Boris Gorenc played harshly with Andrius Giedraitis, who tried to attack the hoop, but the judges did not see a violation in this episode.
Elevich's team last beat CSKA in April 2003. Last season, the teams played six matches against each other - two in the Super League, one in the semi-finals of the Russian Cup and three more in the first round of the playoffs. In two cases, Khimki lacked one hit from close or medium range to send the match into overtime. Both meetings between the rivals in the current regular season also went to the army team - 84:73 and 98:79.
Before today's final, despite securing a ticket to the ULEB Cup, Khimki has more incentives. This is the only team among the seven best teams in the Super League based on the results of the two-round tournament that does not have a single big victory. CSKA repeatedly became the champion of Russia, UNICS, St. Petersburg and Moscow Dynamo, as well as Ural Great won European cups, albeit of completely different significance. And even Dynamo near Moscow has, at least a popular title, won in competition exclusively with clubs from the countries of the former USSR, the title of winner of the Northern Conference of the FIBA-Europe Cup 2003/04. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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