Khimki’s fourth-quarter charge sinks Zalgiris 74
Khimki Moscow Region used a 23-3 fourth-quarter run to rally past visiting Zalgiris Kaunas 84-74 in the Round 21 on Thursday night in the Russian capital.
Zalgiris seemed in control and led by 9 entering the fourth quarter, but Dee Bost and Tony Corker started and Malcolm Thomas and Jordan Mickey finished a big run that paved the way for a Khimki win. Mickey led the way with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks; Thomas collected 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks; and Crocker netted 14 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting for Khimki, which improved to 8-13 and dropped Zalgiris to the same record.
Marius Grigonis paced the Lithuanian champs with 15 points and Nate Wolters added 10 in defeat.
Back-to-back triples from Thomas and Crocker staked Khimki to a 10-4 start. Crocker hit another one from downtown, but so did Grigonis on the other end, before baskets from Wolters and Edgaras Ulanovas tied it at 13-13. Khimki went on to keep visitors scoreless for more than 4 minutes and Stefan Markovic connected with Mickey for an alley-oop dunk to make it 19-14. However, Thomas Walkup hit a three late in the first quarter and Ulanovas early in the second to knot the score at 20-20. Another triple from Grigonis gave the visitors a 23-25 lead, but threes from Bost and Egor Vialtsev helped put Khimki back in front, 31-25. However, the hosts were without a field goal for more than 3 minutes and Zalgiris tied back the game before Ulanovas beat the buzzer with a floater to give the visitors 36-37 halftime lead.
Zalgiris used a dunk from Deon Thompson and a triple from Arturas Milaknis to extend it to 38-44. A fastbreak layup by Thompson opened a 41-49 difference. Mickey had a layup and Thomas a three-pointer for the hosts, but Walkup nailed a corner triple and Antanas Kavaliauskas buried a jumper to make it 47-56 after three quarters.
Khimki did not go away, though. The hosts stepped up defensively once again, while Crocker scored 8 points, including a pair of triples to put Khimki in front 59-58 midway through the fourth quarter. Grigonis answered with a three-pointer, but Bost made a runner to spark a 15-0 run that included 7 points from Mickey to send the hosts to victory.
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