BC Kyiv 101 vs. Galil Elyon 87

BC Kyiv went on this evening to defeat visiting Galil Elyon 101-87, and with the win was able to avenge last week's home loss to Fenerbahçe.

From the start of the first quarter BC Kyiv came out strong and was able to jump out to a 12:2 lead. Galil Elyon fought back though, and managed to end the first quarter down by only three points (23:20). 

BC Kyiv opened up the second quarter with tough defense and was able to successfully convert defensive steals into fast break lay-ups. Every time the home team felt as though they had a comfortable lead, Galil Elyon would claw their way back with three-pointers from Moshe Mizrahi and driving lay-ups by Christian Santana Dalmau. Coach Pasquali was forced into calling timeouts to serve as wake-up calls for his BC Kyiv team.

BC Kyiv started the third quarter with a 7:0 run led by reserves Andrii Lebediev and Kresimir Loncar.  With this quick start to the quarter, the home team extended their lead to 17 points.

The fourth quarter proved to be much of the same for Galil Elyon, they kept on hustling but were never able to draw closer than 10 points.

Quotes BC Kyiv vs. Galil Elyon Golan

Oded Katash, Coach of Galil Elyon:

“First of all I have to mention that today we played against a very strong team, and our main task was to contain our opponents defensively. Unfortunately, we failed to do so.

We knew from the Fenerbahçe game that BC Kyiv had difficulty playing against zone defense, so we tried to use this strategy on a few occasions. However Kyiv started to hit three's and we had to revert back to man-to-man defense.

What hurt us especially was Lamarr Greer, who would not miss when it mattered the most.”

Renato Pasquali, Coach of BC Kyiv:

“I am glad that a week after the disappointing home loss to Fenerbahce we managed to celebrate with a victory against the team that had defeated the defending FIBA Europe champions.

However, I do not want to praise my players too much since they did exactly as they were supposed to do. We need to learn how to stay concentrated for the entire game – our problem is starting to think about the final buzzer as soon as we get a comfortable lead.

It’s still too early to talk about the next stage of the tournament – right now our task is to stay among the top 4 teams in the group”.

Lamarr Greer, Player for BC Kyiv: “After a tough loss a good player starts to practice much harder and wants to win even more. That’s the feeling we had after last week’s loss.”