BC Kyiv defeated Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk 80:72 to claim their 9th straight Superleague victory.

Fatigued by a big number of recent domestic and international matches, Kyiv did not look good at the start of the game, allowing Dnipro to grab an early 17:9 lead.

Kyiv’s head coach Tomo Mahoric put Manuchar Markoishvili and Pooh Jeter in, which changed the flow of the contest, allowing the home side to even things up and grab a 37:35 half-time lead after Jeter’s layup.

Dnipro’s leaders Maxim Kornienko and Grigori Khizhniak got into foul trouble at the start of the 2nd half and had to be very careful thereafter. This resulted in a 8:2 Kyiv run and a 56:45 lead.

The visitor’s forward Victor Kobzisty got his team within 4 in the final quarter, however Kyiv withheld the pressure and held on to the win.

Kyiv’s Artur Drozdov had a team high 16 points and 8 rebounds. Markoishvili and Jeter scored 15 apiece.

Kobzistiy scored 23 for the visitors in the losing effort.

Tomo Mahoric shared his thoughts after the game:

“This was a tough game. Two games a week made us tired both mentally and physically and 11 missed free throws prove that. I am not satisfied with the game but I am with the result – we played well on defense allowing Dnipro to score only 72 points. Now we have to concentrate on preparing for our next ULEB Cup game”

Volodymyr Koval, Dnipro’s guard:

“After losing to AEL we wanted to show we are a strong team and we’ve been able to do it tonight. We played well during the first half, but failed to break Kyiv’s zone in the 3rd quarter. We had a chance in the 4th but our opponents were luckier”.

Georgiy Stupenchuk, Dnipro’s head coach:

“I am feeling we are getting out of the crisis we’ve been in lately. It’s hard to play with just one point-guard and Alexander Panchenko did extremely well with the absence of injured Maxim Vilkhovetskiy’.