07.11.2006

Drozdov Stars In Kyiv Win

BC Kyiv made a solid start to their EuroCup campaign, emerging convincing 79-65 winners over Belgian outfit Liege Basket in Group E.

A tight start to the game saw the two sides evenly matched until midway through the first quarter, when the influence of Artur Drozdov saw Kyiv close out the period 21-14 ahead.

An early three-point effort set the 1.98m forward on his way to a 13 point haul by the quarter's end, as Liege struggled to find another gear.

By the close of the second period the home side's advantage had grown to 12 points, with Drozdov racking up 20 points before half time.

Kyiv's advantage peaked midway through the third quarter, as they stretched their lead to 59-40, with Milan Dozet and LaMarr Greer emerging as able support to the impressive Drozdov.

Dozet finished the game with 13 points, while Greer caught the eye with 15 points, five rebounds and seven assists.

But it was Drozdov who inevitably finished top of the pile for Kyiv, pouring in 28 points, pulling down 10 rebounds in a display that bodes well for the 2005 runners-up.

The efforts of Morris Finley threatened to make a game of it late on, but it was to no avail for the Liege guard, who ended the game with 22 points, including a hat-trick of three-point efforts from seven attempts.

Despite the victory, Kyiv were outrebounded 15-7 on the offensive glass, a worrying trend for head coach Victor Berezhnoi.

"We were reviewing Liege's tapes and preparing for their numerous set plays, but unfortunately did not manage to execute during the game according to the play, having allowed our opponents to outrebound us," he said.

"Defensively, not getting rebounds hurt us because we did not manage to run the floor, while offensively Liege managed to grab 15 rebounds, twice as much as we did. Perhaps, it was not our day, but at least now we clearly see what we need to work on. As the season goes on, we should get better," added Berezhnoi, who is in his first year as Kyiv's head coach.

Giovanni Bozzi, Liege's play caller was quick to point to the fact that his side was not at full strength for the contest.

"The regulations dealing with the American imports in the Belgian league are different from the ones in EuroCup, in which I am not allowed to use more than two non-European players. Although I am not trying to find an excuse, this was a problem for us," he said after the game.

"Our first goal was to control a little bit the tempo and not to let Kyiv run
too much. The second goal was to control the boards. I think we did it
really well. And finally, until the end it was sure an uneasy game for Kyiv, we tried to obligate them to play hard until the final minute."