By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
VTB United League 2019 portion of the 2018-19 Regular Season started with one game on Saturday and five more on Sunday, Christmas Eve for the Russians. CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Kuban strolled to comfortable home wins, UNICS avoided an upset and Zenit Saint-Petersburg got back on the win column. However, an Avtodor Saratov player deserves the MVP of the Week honors.
MVP
Perrin Buford, Avtodor
Avtodor started 2019 with an away victory in Belarus over Tsmoki Minsk. The Russian club got back on the win column and reinserted itself in the VTB Playoffs Zone with Perrin Buford continuing his magnificent season and adding a poster dunk to his tally.
The Middle Tennessee State alumni shared with Trae Golden a team-high 26 points, also grabbed ten rebounds and drew seven fouls in 31:50. He’s now averaging 17.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.
12-0 for CSKA
CSKA Moscow remained undefeated after beating VEF Riga, 92-66, on Russia’s Christmas Eve. Dimitris Itoudis rested some of his players ahead of EuroLeague’s two-game week, but Joel Bolomboy played a team-high 24:14 and shared a team-high 14 points with Mikhail Kulagin. The winners didn’t really face any problems on Sunday.
UNICS survives Enisey
Khimki Moscow Region didn’t play this weekend, but will face CSKA on the road next week following EuroLeague’s double-game week. Third-place UNICS Kazan was in action and nearly suffered an unexpected home defeat to Enisey, but ultimately grabbed a 95-92 win. Dimitris Priftis’ club seemed to take control in the third quarter, but had to hang on tightly down the stretch to avoid the upset.
Lokomotiv holds Zielona Gora to 41 points
Lokomotiv Kuban also continued its winning ways defeating Zielona Gora, 73-41. The Russians finished the first half with a slim 27-22 lead, but turned on their offensive engines the rest of the way to secure an easy win. Dorell Wright sank back-to-back three-pointers in the third quarter lighting up the first signs of his team’s comfortable “W”. The 33-year-old American ended up with 11 points.
Miller-McIntyre returns to Perm
Former Parma Perm Region star, Codi Miller-McIntyre, returned to Perm for the first time and led Zenit to an 107-78 win with 16 points and seven assists. His team started its 7DAYS EuroCup Top 16 campaign with an away loss to UNICS, but didn’t face such issues on the road against Parma. Joan Plaza’s club built a comfortable lead in the second period and protected it the rest of the way to snap a three-game losing streak in the VTB.
Czerapowicz sinks six threes for Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod scored a crucial 85-78 victory over Astana on Sunday. Christopher Czerapowicz was certainly the man of the match with 6/10 three-pointers and a total of 27 points. The Russians got their third straight win and snapped the visitor’s four-game winning streak to emerge into the VTB Playoffs zone.
2019 starts with Avtodor away triumph
VTB’s first 2019 game was between Tsomki Minsk and Avtodor Saratov in Belarus. The visitors almost lost their comfortable lead but held on for their 93-86 victory. Perrin Buford and Trae Golden combined for 52 points leading the Russians back into the Playoffs zone.