2019-20Regular SeasonRound 6
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 90
Khimki Moscow Region 78
October 31, 2019 CET: 19:00
Local time: 19:00 ALEKSANDAR NIKOLIC HALL

Crvena Zvezda romps past Khimki

Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade romped past Khimki Moscow Region 90-78 in an impressive showing at both ends of the floor on Thursday night at Aleksandar Nikolic Arena in the Serbian capital. Borisa Simanic scored a career-high 18 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting to lead the winners, who improved to 2-4 on the season. Billy Baron shot 3 for 4 from behind the arc en route to a season-best 17 points, Stratos Perperoglou also made 3 triples and scored 15, James Gist added 12 points and Lorenzo Brown tallied 10 points and 7 assists. Alexey Shved paced Khimki with 14 points, Devin Booker added 14 points and Anthony Gill posted 11 points and 11 rebounds in defeat. Zvezda never trailed in the game after opening it with the first 8 points. The big blow was a 14-0 third-quarter run and the lead eventually reached 27 in the fourth before Khimki rallied late to lower the deficit.

Just 2 minutes into the game, Zvezda's Branko Lazic and Khimki's Janis Timma were involved in a scuffle that resulted in the former being ejected and the latter assessed an unsportsmanlike foul. Simanic gave the crowd what to cheer about with a pair of three-pointers and a layup in an 8-0 start. After a timeout, Booker broke the ice for the visitors with a three-pointer. The pace picked up with the teams scoring on five consecutive possessions at one point. Baron’s basket-plus-foul made it 15-7 after 5 minutes. Ognjen Kuzmic and Simanic each scored on the offensive glass to create a double-digit margin, 19-9. Booker and Shved closed the gap before Vyacheslav Zaytsev's steal and layup made it 23-22. A three by Perperoglou boosted the Zvezda advantage to 28-22 after 10 minutes. Perperoglou remained hot with a long jumper and a three-pointer on either side of a Khimki timeout followed by a bucket inside to give the hosts a 42-28 lead. A three-point lead extended the difference to 16 before Khimki regained its form and closed to 46-36 with a three by Timma. Booker further trimmed the deficit before Michael Ojo's free throw made it 50-41 at the break. Dairis Bertans connected on a four-point play to start the second half, however, Baron knocked down a pair of triples and Lorenzo Brown had a pair of assists and a layup during a 14-0 run that took the Zvezda lead to 66-47. Perperoglou's third three of the night took the margin to 20 and Simanic's fourth made it 75-52. Zvezda continued piling it on, with the score reaching 80-56 after three quarters and peaking at a 27-point margin early in the fourth. Khimki never threw in the towel and Zaytsev and Jonas Jerebko led the visitors on a run of 14 unanswered points to get within 83-70. Lorenzo Brown stopped the bleeding for Zvezda and allowed his team to secure the victory.

Game-changing run

Khimki made its move early in the third quarter when it cut the lead to 5. One might think that would be when Zvezda felt the pressure, but Billy Baron, Charles Jenkins and Lorenzo Brown surely didn't. Brown fed Baron for a pair of threes that ignited a 14-0 run that blew the game open at 66-47. Baron had 8 points, an assist and a steal; Brown scored a layup and dished 2 assists and Jenkins had a basket, an assist and a steal in that decisive run.

Highs and lows

The Serbian champs scored a season-high 90 points and Borisa Simanic set career-highs with 18 points and performance index rating of 17. Billy Baron's 17 were also a personal best in Europe's premier competition as were Lorenzo Brown's 7 assists. For Khimki, the 78 points scored were a season-low. Alexey Shved's 14 points were a season-low, too, and his 0-for-6 three-point shooting ended a run of 39 consecutive EuroLeague games with a three-pointer made.

An ovation for Jovic

Before the game, Stefan Jovic received a standing ovation from the fans and was presented with a replica of the No. 24 jersey he wore during his three seasons as a Zvezda player between 2014 and 2017. He led Zvezda to one of its greatest periods with three consecutive Adriatic and Serban League crowns plus a pair of Serbian Cups.

What's next?

Zvezda will mark the second of three consecutive home games on Thursday, November 7 when it hosts Real Madrid.

Borisa Simanic - Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade - EB19
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: ROCHA, FERNANDO; PEREZ, EMILIO; ROSSI, MICHELE
Attendance: 5432
By Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade28223010
Khimki Moscow Region22191522
End of Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade28508090
Khimki Moscow Region22415678
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 KUZMIC, OGNJEN 16:20 4 2/2     1 4 5 1   1     3   6
3 COVIC, FILIP 15:32           1 1 2   1     3 2 1
4 BROWN, LORENZO 24:28 10 4/7   2/2 1 2 3 7 1 2     1 2 17
5 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 23:19 15 2/7 3/5 2/2 1 4 5 1 1       3 1 13
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 12:52 2   0/3 2/2   2 2             2 3
10 LAZIC, BRANKO 2:01     0/1                   1 1 -1
12 BARON, BILLY 18:58 17 3/7 3/4 2/5   1 1 2 1     2 1 5 15
13 DOBRIC, OGNJEN 14:00 3   1/2     2 2 3   1     4 1 3
15 GIST, JAMES 19:58 12 3/6   6/7 1 4 5 2       1 3 6 17
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 22:28 8 4/8 0/1     1 1 4 2 1     3   6
28 SIMANIC, BORISA 26:27 18 3/4 4/7   1 2 3 1 2 2 2 1 3 1 17
50 OJO, MICHAEL 3:37 1     1/2 1   1     1       2 2
Team           4 4 8               8
Totals 200:00 90 21/41 11/23 15/20 10 27 37 23 7 9 2 4 25 23 107
        51.2% 47.8% 75%
Head coach: GAVRILOVIC, ANDRIJA
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 26:43 14 3/7 0/6 8/8   5 5 4 1 3   1   5 15
5 BOOKER, DEVIN 17:33 13 1/3 3/4 2/2   2 2 1 1 1     1 3 15
6 TIMMA, JANIS 22:36 8 1/1 2/8   2   2 1   3     1 3 4
7 KARASEV, SERGEY 17:46   0/1 0/1     2 2 4   2     2    
8 ZAITCEV, VIACHESLAV 18:37 7 3/3   1/2   3 3 3 2 1     5 2 10
10 DESIATNIKOV, ANDREI 6:41 4 2/4     1 3 4           1   5
11 JEREBKO, JONAS 20:35 9 3/7 0/2 3/4 1 2 3       1   3 2 5
12 MONIA, SERGEY 11:29 2 1/2 0/1   3   3 1   1     3    
13 GILL, ANTHONY 25:10 11 2/4   7/8 4 7 11 1 1   3 1 4 6 25
24 JOVIC, STEFAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
40 EVANS, JEREMY 12:27 5 2/5   1/2 2 1 3             2 6
45 BERTANS, DAIRIS 20:23 5 0/1 1/4 2/3       2         3 2 1
Team           2   2     1         1
Totals 200:00 78 18/38 6/26 24/29 15 25 40 17 5 12 4 2 23 25 87
        47.4% 23.1% 82.8%
Head coach: KURTINAITIS, RIMAS

Head Coaches

GAVRILOVIC, ANDRIJA
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"I feel very good because I see that my team, that each guy was wishing hard to win this game after the difficult period that we had and this desire brought us energy in the first and we repeated it in the second half. It was two emotional ups and downs and I think this is the reason. Borisa Simanic wanted it very hard and he came out with confidence and he helped a lot to open the game the way we wanted."
KURTINAITIS, RIMAS
Khimki Moscow Region
"First of all, I want to congratulate Crvena Zvezda team and coach Andrija Gavrilovic on a really good game. They played with energy and put their hearts on the floor. For sure, there were no questions, who was stronger tonight. Crvena Zvezda was much stronger. As for the double game week, we were in the same situation. We were even in a better situation because we had a charter flight. I think the biggest problem was that some of our players thought too good about ourselves. This is the biggest problem. The second problem was that our leaders lost a lot of energy in the game against Panathinaikos, so we needed more help from the bench. But today the bench's help was not enough to win. This is a good experience for us because we have six more [two-game] weeks like this. It's not easy to play two or three games a week, but this is the schedule and we must learn how to play and to control the game. It's a good lesson for us. Thank you to Crvena Zvezda who taught us a little bit tonight."

Players

BARON, BILLY
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"I feel good. My teammates trusted me. It's been a while since I had my rhythm, it feels like forever. My teammates have always told me to shoot; they think I don't shoot enough. So I'm thankful for my teammates and their belief in me. That’s the reason that I was able to make those shots. Khimki was 4-1 coming in here. They beat some really good teams. We knew Shved was going to take his shots. We just had to hope that they weren't going to go in, some of them weren't going to go in; he’s a great player, obviously. We played really good team defense. It was a really good effort. In our previous weeks in the EuroLeague we gave up leads, so we were able to sustain the lead and grow it in the third quarter and thankfully we were able to come out with a big win."
BROWN, LORENZO
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"It feels good to get a good win in our home gym and we want to keep that rolling. We’ve been struggling as a unit thus far but there is a lot going on right now and we just want to keep our heads and stay together as a team."
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