Eurocup. BC Khimki vs. Valencia25 march 2015

BC Khimki destroyed the reigning Eurocup champ Valencia Basket (Spain) in the return 1/4 finals game, held in Russia — 76-61 (21-20, 21-16, 20-11, 14-14), and will play a semifinal series vs. Banvit Bandirma (Turkey). The next game our team will play at home on Sunday, March 29, 2015 vs. Astana (Kazakhstan). The beginning is at 17.00 msk.

BC Khimki: Rice (18 + 10 assists + 3 rebounds), Monya (16 + 5 rebounds + 3 blocks), Koponen (14 + 5 rebounds + 2 assists), Vyaltsev (13), Davis (7 + 6 rebounds + 5 assists), Honeycutt (6 +9 rebounds + 2 steals + 2 assists), Pateev (2), Augustine, Ilnitsky, Sheleketo.

POST-GAME QUOTES

Carles Duran, Valencia Basket head coach:

“Congratulations to Khimki. I think today the key was the second quarter when my team went up by 6 points and after it was down by 6 points. In the second half Khimki played very easy, making long and three-point shots every time, whereas Valencia didn’t play basketball. That is the finish”.

Bojan Dubljevic, Valencia Basket center:

“We had a bad game today. We thought we could win, but it was not possible because Khimki is probably one of the best teams in Europe now. They will win the Eurocup if they play like today. We didn’t have much power, as Khimki is a really good and strong team. It was a bad night today. Now we must turn to the ACB League and try to make a good position for the playoffs”.

Rimas Kurtinaitis, BC Khimki head coach:

“First of all I want to thank our fans who supported us today. We felt this support and needed it very much. Secondly I would like to thank my guys for their effort. We had some technical defects and sometimes made wrong decisions, but our devotion, desire and enthusiasm afforded such a great result. We know the power of Valencia as they beat Barcelona by 20 points in the last ACB League game. So I’m doubly happy that we could avenge last season’s failure by having won as in Spain as in Russia. We did it with confidence and without any questions. We have played well so far, but there are still some things we can improve”.

Petteri Koponen, BC Khimki guard:

“It’s a good win for us. We knew that Valencia is a tough team and they also beat Barcelona over the weekend in the Spanish League. I think the key for this series was how we played in Spain, as last year we lost there by 16 and now we won by 1 point. Normally we are pretty strong at home and we took care of business tonight here. We did a good job for all 80 minutes. After a big break, we kept playing like we did in the first half and made a pretty good run. We played aggressively and made fast breaks. Our defense was good all game as we stopped Valencia at 61 points. I was happy to meet Kreso as he spent three years here. He is a great guy and great team player”.