Quarterfinals at a Glance: Valencia Basket vs. Khimki Moscow Region

Feb 10, 2017 by Eurocupbasketball.com Print
Quarterfinals at a Glance: Valencia Basket vs. Khimki Moscow Region

This series will be a true clash of styles between the defense-minded Valencia Basket and the high-scoring Khimki Moscow Region. The teams have a lot of history between them; Khimki bested Valencia 77-68 in the 2012 EuroCup Championship Game and swept Valencia in the quarterfinals two seasons ago en route to the title. Valencia knocked out Khimki in the eighthfinals in 2014 on its way to the EuroCup crown. Valencia enjoyed a perfect Top 16 record to win Group H be being a highly efficient team, which committed the fewest turnovers per game (11.9), allowed the fewest points (71.4) and was the second-most accurate in free throw shooting (79.5%). Although two-time All-EuroCup selection Bojan Dubljevic (11.2 ppg.) is the only Valencia player averaging double figures in scoring, the well-balanced team features another six players averaging at least 7.7 points per game. Point guard Antoine Diot (4.4 apg.) is fifth in steals (1.6 spg.) and swingman Fernando San Emeterio are among the veterans that make the team tick. Khimki boasts the second-highest performance index rating (99.4) in the competition and third-most offensive rebounds (11.9). Khimki also ranked last in free throw shooting (67.3%) despite guard E.J. Rowland (92.1%) leading the EuroCup in that category. Khimki plays aggressive defense with its up-tempo attack, which is how it has collected the second-most steals (8.2 spg.) and fielded the top two shot blockers in the Top 16 in Sergey Monia (1.5 bpg.) and Marko Todorovic (1.4 bpg.). Of course Khimki’s main man is Alexey Shved, whose 22.6 points per game are most in the EuroCup. With Shved (4.6 apg.) alongside Rowland (10.6 ppg.) and Jacob Pullen (10.2 ppg.), Khimki will attack from the backcourt.