BC Kyiv got away with a 1-point road win over BC Odessa in the second game-day of the 2007/08 Superleague season.

The home-team had a strong start to the game, shooting the lights out from beyond the ark and giving Kyiv hard time with their pick-and-rolls. This resulted in Odessa’s 18:7 early lead.

Kyiv went small in the second quarter, using their quickness to get some steals and convert them into fast-breaks. Midway through the time-frame they went ahead by 1 – 23:22. Kyiv’s guards continued the tight play defensively, while young center Viacheslav Kravtsov kept outplaying his opponents in the offensive key. This all gave the visitors a 39:32 lead at halftime.

Odessa started the second half with a 9-2 run, keeping the game close the rest of the quarter. Odessa’s Oleksander Rybalko put an end to it with a buzzer-beating three, which gave his team a 52:49 lead.

The home-side opened the final quarter with yet another run, extending their lead to 11 points 4 minutes into it. Kyiv, however, bounced back from the blow – perfect execution of their set plays and Ryan Stack’s back-to-back and-one plays brought Kyiv their second (73:72) win of the season.

Stack finished the contest with 23 points. Eugene Jeter added 14 and captain Artur Drozdov contributed with 11 points and 7 rebounds.

Odessa’s Eddy Barlow and Oleksandr Rybalko were their team’s top scorers with 18 and 17 points respectively.

“I would like to thank my players for the win”, said Kyiv’s coach Tomo Mahoric after the game. “They managed to break the flow of a very difficult game

“I have to admit that we did not execute very well today. We had only 8 free-throw attempts, meaning we did not play aggressively enough on the offensive end. On the other end of the floor we let Odessa’s shooters take way too many uncontested shots”.

Meanwhile, Kyiv’s juniors had far less trouble against their opponents from Odessa. They smashed the home-side 96:56, which also allowed them to keep the perfect record in the tournament.

Denys Lukashov was Kyiv’s top-scorer with 22 points and 5 assists. Andri Lebedyntsev added 15 points, 10 assists and 5 steals.