Step Toward Play-Offs

On February 12 Kyiv’s Sports Palace hosted a prelim match of the North European Basketball League championship between Kyiv BK and Tallinn Kalev. The audience of 5000 watched an interesting and fruitful game which the Kyivans won 87:69.

Before this match, Kyiv had ranked eighth in the charts, with six wins in thirteen games, while the Estonians had trailed the first ten. What added vim to the match was the fact that both sides were struggling to qualify for the next stage, where championship medals will be awarded after a series of play-offs. So each team needed a victory.

The Kyivans looked superior to their rivals throughout the match and never let the Estonians take the lead. After getting off to a flying start, our squad led the score at 10:4, in the third minute and won the first quarter 32:15. The Ukrainians eased up a little in the second quarter of the match, when coaches fielded some young players, which allowed Kalev to bridge the score gap to nine points. But the third period saw a superb performance by Kyiv captain Vyacheslav Yevstratenko whose three- point shots hit home more than once and put the record straight. BK won a well-deserved victory and practically solved the problem of qualifying for the next stage.

Also deserving praise is 36-year-old Kyivan Oleksandr Volkov, an Olympic champion, who again proved that age is no obstacle to mastery, while Black American transferees Gerald Achen and Cornelius Osborn stood out on the Kalev side.

Our compatriots will play the concluding game of the first stage against Moscow’s TsSKA (Central Army Club) in the Sports Palace on February 25.