Translated material
End of the series
Khimki waited four years for victory over CSKA
The strongest club in Europe, CSKA, suffered its second defeat in the Super League. The failure of the army team in the away match with Khimki (74:75) is considered super sensational, despite the fact that such an outcome in the match between the current champion and the silver medalist should not be surprising. However, the result of this game looks like a big surprise if you look at the history of the previous relationships between the rivals. Khimki has not defeated CSKA since January 2003 and during this time in the Russian Championship they lost in 15 matches in a row, and if you also count the matches for the National Cup, the series totals 17 games.The new coach of the Moscow Region club, Kestutis Kemzure, managed to somewhat change the psychology of the basketball players in a short time. The former “steering” of the team, Sergei Elevich, has repeatedly stated that CSKA is very strong, it is difficult and almost impossible to fight this team. Although even under Elevich there were matches in which CSKA tipped the scales in its favor only in the last seconds. Probably one of the reasons for the sensational success of Khimki is Kemzura’s fresh look at the balance of power in the Russian club championship and the capabilities of the players defending the “yellow-blue” colors.
The few days leading up to the game with CSKA were intense for Khimki and hardly contributed to the good mood of the athletes and administration. In the quarterfinal match of the Russian Cup with Dynamo Moscow, the referees did not count the ball thrown by Venezuelan Oscar Torres at the same time as the final siren. As a result, Khimki, which defeated the Euroleague participant with a difference of 16 points, could not prevail on aggregate in the two meetings. On the other hand, for disgraceful behavior, the Super League directorate heavily fined Dynamo Serb coach Dusan Ivkovic, his assistant on the coaching staff Vangelis Agello, and defender Dmitry Domani, who became unruly during the discussion about the controversial situation. The first is disqualified for three games, the second for two; Domani has already missed Saturday’s match against Spartak-Primorye (Vladivostok). However, Khimki is no better off from Dynamo’s punishments - one task for the season has not been completed, since the team was left out of the Final Four.
At the end of the working week, a meeting of the independent appeal jury of the Russian Basketball Federation was held, which recognized the refereeing of Khimki’s victorious Moscow Region derby with Dynamo (83:73), which took place at the end of January, as unqualified. The referees were punished, the result of the match was upheld, but it turns out that this decision actually downplays the significance of Khimki’s success in the game with its principal opponent.
It was against such a negative background that Kestutis Kemzura’s team approached the match with CSKA. The hosts started the match very cheerfully, at high speeds and with a decent percentage of hits. Already in the middle of the first quarter, after an accurate shot by American Melvin Booker, Khimki led by eight points. Only towards the end of the period did the army team reduce this gap by half. As a rule, army men make a victorious push after a long break, expending exactly as much effort as necessary to achieve the desired result. However, this time in the second half of the match, the Khimki players acted very collectedly and did not allow the guests to take the lead. Kemzura made many substitutions, while CSKA clearly lacked the injured David Vanterpool. The hosts had very useful basketball players who had previously played for the now defunct Dynamo St. Petersburg - Belarusian Vladimir Veremeenko and American Kelly McCarthy.
A little over a minute before the siren, CSKA was losing 72:75. Trajan Langdon made his way under the hosts' hoop and made the gap minimal. It was hard to imagine then that the American had set the final score. The ending was chaotic. Booker missed from behind the six-meter line, in response Holden shot wide with his foot on the three-point arc, then McCarthy also made an inaccurate long-range shot. CSKA had 11 seconds left to snatch victory or earn free throws, but it all ended with Papaloukas misfiring.
“Vanterpool’s absence played a big role,” says CSKA head coach Ettore Messina. - After a difficult start, in the second and third quarters we managed to organize team play both in defense and in attack. However, in the last period, Khimki were fresher, and we again began to give in to them in organization, primarily in attack.” Kemzura paid tribute to absolutely all the players on his team: “Everyone who entered the court, and even those who sat on the bench, contributed to the victory. It doesn’t matter how long you go on the court, you must be ready. Like the Italian Pozzecco. He only came on for six minutes, but he gave the team an impetus. Even though Dyachok scored only three points, he reliably replaced Veremeenko, not allowing our tactical schemes to collapse.”
Results. Super League. UNICS -- Lokomotiv-Rostov -- 89:72, Dynamo M -- Spartak-Primorye -- 83:68, CSK VVS-Samara -- Ural Great -- 89:94, "Spartak" St. Petersburg - "Dynamo" Moscow Region - 70:66. Leading: UNICS - 14 wins - 2 losses, CSKA - 13--2, Khimki - 12--4, Dynamo M - 11--4, Lokomotiv-Rostov - 10-- 5.