2018-19Regular SeasonRound 27
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul 91
Khimki Moscow Region 85
March 20, 2019 CET: 18:15
Local time: 20:15 VOLKSWAGEN ARENA

Darussafaka outguns Khimki at home

Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul recorded its fourth win of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season by topping Khimki Moscow Region 91-85 at Volkswagen Arena on Wednesday. Darussafaka improved to 4-23 in the standings, but remained at the bottom of the standings. Khimki dropped to 9-18 and 13th place overall. Micheal Eric led the winners with 22 points and 15 rebounds and Jeremy Evans and Toney Douglas each added 20 points for Darussafaka. Alexey Shved paced Khimki with 31 points, while Jordan Mickey added 22. Shved and Mickey shined early to give Khimki a 17-23 margin after 10 minutes. Douglas led a 16-0 run that took Darussafaka to a 33-29 lead and a dunk by Zanis Peiners kept the hosts ahead, 48-46, at halftime. Darussafaka boosted its lead to double digits, 57-46, soon after the break, but Mickey and Shved restored a 63-65 Khimki edge at the end of the third quarter. Eric took over in the fourth quarter, allowing the hosts to stop their six-game losing streak.

Douglas and Stanton Kidd combined for all the points in a 6-0 opening run. Shved scored in penetration and Andrew Harrison struck from downtown, but a huge dunk by Evans put Darussafaka ahead, 8-6. Khimki found a go-to guy in Andrey Zubkov, who had 5 points in a 0-10 run that Harrison capped with a wild layup-plus-foul for an 8-16 lead. Evans kept pushing the hosts with a dunk, a high-flying three-point play and a layup. Sergey Monia kept Khimki ahead, 17-19. Mickey followed a dunk with a jumper to boost Khimki's lead to 17-23 after 10 minutes. Mickey and Monia each downed a triple to make it a double-digit game, 17-29, early in the second quarter. Jon Diebler answered from downtown and Evans added a three-point play to rescue Darussafaka, then Douglas scored 7 unanswered points to cap a 16-0 run which put the visitors in charge, 33-29. Shved struck three times from beyond the arc, but Evans and Douglas kept the hosts ahead, 42-40. Zubkov scored again and Shved dunked only to see Dogus Ozdemiroglu and Peiners establish a 48-46 Darussafaka lead at halftime. Mert Akay scored around the basket soon after the break as Khimki kept struggling to score. Meanwhile, Eric dunked and a three-pointer by Kidd caused the visitors to stop the game, 57-46, after a 13-0 run. Malcolm Thomas and Mickey tried to change things for Khimki and a layup by Charles Jenkins made it a three-point game after a 0-8 run. Douglas downed an off-balance jumper and Berk Demir added a layup, but Shved and an unstoppable Mickey allowed Khimki to complete its comeback, 63-65, after 30 minutes. Harrison downed a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter, but back-to-back layups by Eric kept Darussafaka as close as 67-68. Ozdemiroglu and Douglas each sank a corner triple and Eric added a three-point play to put the hosts in charge, 76-70, with 6 minutes left. Shved stepped up with 5 unanswered points and Stefan Markovic hit a triple, but an unstoppable Eric singlehandedly lifted Darussafaka to an 86-78 lead. Mickey and Shved did not give up, however, bringing Khimki within 87-85 with 24.6 seconds left. Akay and Douglas hit free throws to seal the outcome.

Pivotal performer

Eric made the difference in the fourth quarter, powering the offensive glass and getting many easy points in the paint. He had 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to make sure Darussafaka won the game. Eric finished the game with 22 points on 10-of-12 two-point shooting plus 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 fouls drawn and a performance index rating of 33.

Game-changing moment

Khimki led 67-68 midway through the fourth quarter, but Ozdemiroglu and Douglas each struck from downtown and then Eric scored five consecutive times in the paint to make it 86-78, which proved to be enough for the hosts to seal the outcome in the final seconds.

Stellar stat

Darussafaka was effective in the paint, hitting 25 of 40 two-point shots (62.5%), outrebounding Khimki 44-26 and pulling down 14 offensive boards.

Did you notice?

Darussafaka set a new team PIR record with 110 against Khimki. Its previous record was 109 against Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz on January 12, 2017. Its 25 assists were the second-best mark in competition history; it dished 26 against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar on April 8, 2016.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action on Friday. Khimki hosts Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv at 18:00 CET. An hour later, Darussafaka visits Zalgiris Kaunas.

Michael Eric - Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul - EB18
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; SILVA, SERGIO; BAUMANIS, INGUS
Attendance: 2094
By Quarter1234
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul17311528
Khimki Moscow Region23231920
End of Quarter1234
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul17486391
Khimki Moscow Region23466585
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 AKAY, MERT 22:21 6 1/1 0/3 4/6 1 4 5 6 1 1     4 3 11
5 BAYGUL, MUHAMMED 10:57   0/1 0/1     2 2     1     1 3 1
9 KOSUT, EMIRCAN 0:04                              
10 DEMIR, BERK 7:33 4 1/1   2/2           1     2 1 2
11 KIDD, STANTON 17:01 6 0/2 2/5     3 3 1 1 2     3   1
18 OZDEMIROGLU, DOGUS 18:53 5 1/3 1/3   1   1 2   2     2    
21 SAVAS, OGUZ DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 DOUGLAS, TONEY 35:11 20 3/8 3/8 5/6 2 2 4 6 1 3   1   3 19
31 PEINERS, ZANIS 17:14 5 2/2   1/2   2 2 2         2 2 8
33 DIEBLER, JON 12:27 3   1/3         4         3   2
40 EVANS, JEREMY 28:20 20 7/10 0/2 6/6 3 5 8 2     1   1 4 29
50 ERIC, MICHAEL 29:59 22 10/12   2/5 5 10 15 2   2   1 3 5 33
Team           2 2 4               4
Totals 200:00 91 25/40 7/25 20/27 14 30 44 25 3 12 1 2 21 21 110
        62.5% 28% 74.1%
Head coach: ERNAK, SELCUK
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Khimki Moscow Region
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SHVED, ALEXEY 34:07 31 4/10 5/12 8/9   4 4 2 1 3       7 28
5 CROCKER, TONY 10:24   0/1       1 1                
8 ZAITCEV, VIACHESLAV DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 MARKOVIC, STEFAN 28:31 5 1/2 1/5     1 1 8 1 2     4 2 6
11 HARRISON, ANDREW 25:47 9 1/3 2/4 1/1   2 2 4         3 3 11
12 MONIA, SERGEY 11:10 6 1/3 1/2 1/2   1 1 1         3 2 3
15 GUBANOV, PETR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 18:47 6 3/4       2 2 1       1 1 1 7
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 21:11 2 1/2 0/2   1 3 4 2 1       3   3
23 THOMAS, MALCOLM 26:07 4 0/1 0/1 4/4 1 4 5 3 1 1 1   5 4 10
25 MICKEY, JORDAN 23:56 22 8/9 2/2 0/1 1 3 4   3 1 1   2 2 27
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 85 19/35 11/28 14/17 4 22 26 21 7 7 2 1 21 21 97
        54.3% 39.3% 82.4%
Head coach: KURTINAITIS, RIMAS

Head Coaches

ERNAK, SELCUK
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul
"We had a lot of games in which we were in the game until the end, but we couldn't manage to pull the W, so that was also a need for us. We struggled also coming back from the EuroLeague in the domestic competition. We had a lot of injuries and tried to keep up with that. That was a bad need, so I am really glad for my players to get this win. This will help us a lot - this is a special season for Darussafaka and we are trying to find the identity of the team and the club in two very tough competitions. I am really glad, because it was a big need for us, for our team. In all the competitions we play, our team is a really strong-rebounding team. That doesn't surprise me, but the assist-to-turnover ratio is always important in basketball. I went to give a lot of credit to Mert Akay. The young fellow came off the bench and stayed almost 25 minutes on the court. He had 6 points and 6 assists, but more than that, he was the combination between all groups of players. He made our offense go fluently and helped us a lot to achieve this kind of score, over 90 points."
KURTINAITIS, RIMAS
Khimki Moscow Region
"Congratulations to Darussafaka for a good victory. They were down and got back into the game. We still have problems with rebounds and slash too much. We lost the rebounds again, 44-26. This is a problem not just under our basket, but also with offensive rebounds. It is the biggest problem of our team. At some point, we were up by 12 and need to be more solid than we were today because in a couple of minutes, the game was tied. We need to be more solid as a team."

Players

ERIC, MICHAEL
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul
"I feel great and we feel great as a team. Every day is an experience, wins and losses, and that is part of the game. We are having an unfortunate season, but the one thing I know we don't do is quit. We have tried our best and if you watch every match, we always fight until the last minute. That shows the character of the team - we are young, inexperienced, but at the same time, we are working hard every day and trying to do something for ourselves. It is just another good day and we have another road trip tomorrow. We are going to do to Lithuania to play Zalgiris, so we need to focus on that. Today is over with."
EVANS, JEREMY
Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul
"I feel great, especially after getting the win. We needed one; it has been a while in the EuroLeague. We just wanted to go out and fight. We made good passes and guys stayed together. We kept playing for each other."