By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Valencia shut down Khimki Moscow in the last four minutes of the Round 19 game between the two teams to grab a stunning 75 – 84 win on the road. The Spanish side, that was without big man Bojan Dubljevic, closed the match with a 0 -9 run to get the victory and improve its regular-season record to 9-10.
Khimki has the same wins and losses after suffering its fourth straight defeat, however, on paper, the Russian team has a bigger ceiling and bigger ambitions. Still, Rimas Kurtinaitis’ players went scoreless with the game tied 75 – 75 and 3:26 left to play following free throws by Alexey Shved. On the other end, Valencia scored nine unanswered points.
Fernando San Emeterio scored a team-high 18 points on perfect shooting (2/2 2-pointers, 4/4 3-pointers) while grabbing five rebounds to pace Valencia. Aaron Doorknekamp added 13 points and Louis Labeyrie 11.
For Khimki, Alexey Shved had 18 points (2/11 3-pointers) five rebounds and five assists. Anthony Gill dropped 12 points.
Ponsarnau: “We have responded well collectively to their great individual”
Valencia coach Jaume Ponsarnau explained why his team despite not having the stars of Khimki managed to prevailed in the end: “We started playing very well in the offence, but we were not able to remember that in defense we should play hard and we let them into the game. We knew that this was a game of 40 minutes or more and we had to stay in the game and take advantage of our good moments. The balance has fallen on our side and we took better advantage of these moments. We have limited their game and we were able to attack their switching defense. We have responded well collectively to their individual talent”.