By Stefan Djordjevic/ sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
Jordan Loyd led the way for Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade which took over in crunch time against Khimki Moscow Region and logged a 92-81 home win in Round 29 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Loyd scored a total of 22 points on 5-8 from deep but two of those long-range shots came in the last five minutes as he scored nine and captain Branko Lazic five points for Zvezda’s 14-point run. Lazic finished with eight points.
It was actually a perfect run during which the hosts didn’t allow Khimki to score at all and after being down by one point, went ahead 86-73 to decide the victor.
Dejan Davidovac scored 16 followed by Corey Walden with 15 and Ognjen Dobric with 12 points. On the opposing side, Khimki couldn’t count on Alexey Shved but Jordan Mickey and Errick McCollum had 29 and 27 points respectively as they tried to save the Russian team from defeat.
The teams remain at the bottom of the EuroLeague standings with Zvezda improving to 8-21 while Khimki now holds a 3-25 record.
Hard work and persistence paid off
Crvena Zvezda went through a lot due to injuries and covid-related issues in 2021 but they’ve been pushing through and recovering with this win maybe being a sign of better times to come.
Their offense wasn’t in top form recently but tonight they shot 16-23 from deep, one shy of the club record. Davidovac went 4-4, Walden 2-2, and Ognjen Dobric 2-3 with Lazic adding two and Duop Reath adding one.
Loyd, who banked in five triples, was very happy with the win and would like his team to continue playing the way they played this time.
“I’m just so happy, this group has been through a lot this year. I’m happy for the coaching staff and the guys, we played great. I’m so happy we won, we’ve been working hard and had so many close games we couldn’t pull out. We tried to share the ball, everyone was building confidence, we’ve been doing that all year and we’ve got to keep shooting. No matter how many you miss, you gotta try to make the next one,” he said.
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague