Eurocup, Paris-Levallois and Khimky Moscow Region win

The excitement and week to week action of the group phases has ended and the Eurocup has entered its knock-out stage, from here the competition becomes high stakes as one slip can result in elimination, while only the best will stand tall to enter the quarter-finals.

Tipping off the action in the Eighth finals, there were two games on Tuesday with the remaining six contests to play out on Wednesday. In a tight game in the French capital, Paris Levallois overcame PGE Turow in the first leg of their do or die match up. In the other encounter, Khimky Moscow Region downed Zenit St. Petersburg on the road in an all-Russian derby.

Paris-Levallois vs. PGE Turow Zgorzelec, 74-71
Paris-Levallois will think of game one of its two contest match up with PGE Turow as job done. The hosts posted the victory demanded by the home fans, but it was a narrow win and the Polish Champions from Zgorzelec will know it is all to play for when the teams meet again. Of course, all ties at this stage are decided by accumulated point’s total, so with that in mind Paris’ lead is slim.

It was a game where the teams flat out struggled shooting, whether from the charity strip of from distance. PGE Turow posted 15 of 27, 55.5% from free throws and 6 of 31, 19.4% from downtown. Paris was hardly setting an example as the home team made 12 of 18 free throws, 66.7%; 6 of 24 threes, 25%.

The Polish visitors actually led at the start of the fourth quarter, after trading leads with the French club, the scoreboard read 53-55. The hosts rallied in the final act to edge the game, and looked to the scoring of Giovan Oniangue (12 points), Blake Schlib (11 points), and Sharrod Ford (10 points). Zgorzelec had its own go to guys, with Mardy Collins leading the way with a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds, while he completed a solid all-round display with 7 assists.

Zenit St. Petersburg vs. Khimky Moscow Region, 84-86
Khimky Moscow Region has proved by taking the fight to CSKA Moscow in the VTB League that the club is a formidable foe. The team travelled to Russian rival Zenit St. Petersburg on Tuesday and picked up an important win to start their two leg contest. With just a two point cushion, Khimy is certainly not guaranteed a berth in the Quarter finals of the Eurocup, but with leg two taking place in Moscow, the club must now be feeling confident.

Zenit too will feel decent enough, despite the loss the club is still firmly in the tie and anything can happen next week. The hosts will rue a really poor first half where they struggled to compete. Indeed, Khimky was hot in the first quarter and blitzed it 18-26, before doing better in the second frame with a 16-27 flurry. At the long break the visitors led 34-53 and extended the lead to 24 points at one point. However, Zenit exploded in the third quarter with a 32-23 run and then continued the momentum in Q4. It made the finale very interesting, but ultimately Khimky Moscow Region edged it based on that first half.

Tyrese Rice continued to be the driving force behind Khimky’s attack as he posted a game high 22 points and also laid on 6 scoring passes. Following Rice were Petteri Koponen and Ruslav Pateen with 11 points apiece.

Three players scored 16 points for Zenit in the loss, Dmitry Kulagin Artem Vikhrov, and Kyle Landry, the latter doubling up by adding 10 boards.