Euroleague. BC Khimki vs. Maccabi18 january 2013

Great defense and overall team effort allowed BC Khimki to score a huge home victory over David Blatt's team Maccabi Electra — 88-67 (19-25, 27-9, 24-16, 18-17). On Monday, January 21, 2013 BC Khimki will face BC Enisey Krasnoyarsk within the bounds of PBL chamionship. The beginning of the meeting is at 19.30 msk.

Best scorers: Rivers (20), Davis (16 + 9 rebounds), Koponen (15)

David Blatt, Maccabi Electra head coach:

— First of all, congratulations to BC Khimki. They really played a good game. After the first quarter we lost our way. You can make plans in the best possible way, but the moment that you don’t stay true to the principles, you get in trouble against good teams and that’s what happened today. We played a very good first quarter, and then we simply stopped. It was very difficult for me to look on the floor and see a lot of my great players from the national team, from the past. It’s a funny feeling and to be honest an unpleasant one, especially today, because they won. I’m happy to see Fridzon continuing his great career and Monya to be such a successful player and a leader. It’s great to see Vyaltsev playing a major role in a high-level team; he is a national team level player.

Shawn James, Maccabi Electra center:

— We didn’t do our job today. We made a lot of turnovers in the second quarter. We started the game pretty well, but had too many turnovers and Khimki had too many second-chance opportunities.

Rimas Kurtinaitis, BC Khimki head coach:

— I’m very happy for the job we did today on the court, with concentration for 40 minutes. Frankly speaking I didn’t expect that we would manage to come together in such a perfect way. This game was even better than the game against FC Barcelona Regal, it was a high-quality basketball with energy and intensity. Very seldom I’m pleased with the way my guys play, but today I have no grievance against my players, no claims. We surpassed Maccabi Electra at all parameters. To cut a long story short, the game was great. Now you see that it was like a message to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, that BC Khimki is not an accidental team.

James Augustine, BC Khimki forward:

— It was a great game for our team; we played very good defense in the second half after a constrained start. The team came together and scored a very important home victory. In the first quarter we got stuck, lost a lot of defense principles, it was a slow beginning. Our bench played an incredible game and everyone contributed today. At the same time I don’t think it was an easy victory, despite us winning by a lot of points. The reason we won is our defense.