«Khimki» Khimki, Russia vs. «Astana» Astana, Kazakhstan

Khimki defeated Astana at home on Sunday, 128-87. The home team jumped out to a 24-point lead in the first half. Khimki put the game on ice in the second half, led by Egor Vyaltsev's barrage of 3-pointers. Moscow Region picked up the win and made an impressive recovery from the losses to CSKA and Real Madrid earlier in the week.

Recap
The home team's defense had Astana tied up in knots in the opening period. Khimki converted several early turnovers into easy fast-break buckets for Alexey Shved and Zoran Dragic. Egor Vyaltsev also knocked down his first '3' late in the 1st quarter. By halftime, the Russian guard had made five from downtown and Khimki enjoyed complete control of the contest.

The lead remained at 25-30 points for much of the second half. Astana never threatened, buried under an avalanche of 3-pointers, including seven more from Egor Vyaltsev. The home team ultimately won by 41, setting a new team record for points (128).

Star Player
Egor Vyaltsev. He was just getting warmed up in the first half, finishing the game with a new league record 12 3-pointers (Marius Runkauskas had the previous record of 10). He also finished one point shy of Randy Culpepper's scoring record (41 points in 2013). Vyaltsev even posted a 40 efficiency rating, missing just five attempts from the field.

Stat of the Game
All sorts of records were set in this game. In addition to Vyaltsev's 40 points and 12 3-pointers, Khimki set a new league record with 46 assists. Tyrese Rice dished out 17, good for 4th in league history. The team also scored 128 points (2nd all-time) and connected on 81% of its two-point field-goal attempts (3rd).

Quotes
Khimki head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis:
- I'm happy that we won, but not because we scored a lot, but because of the effort on the court. It was very important to recover our energy and aggressiveness, though I can't say that we were that bad in that element of the game in our previous three losses. Today, I wanted to especially focus on not just winning, but maintaining a lead. We've had trouble with that. Against Astana, we played 40 minutes of disciplined, unselfish, under-control basketball, not just one-on-one. I want to note Vyaltsev's very good game, as well as his teammates' excellent understanding of how he was playing. No one tried to hog the ball. Instead, they realized that Vyaltsev could connect. Rice did a great job. He dished out 17 assists, which is what I want from a point guard. Shved ran the team well. We needed to regain our confidence, which is what today's game provided.

Astana head coach Ramunas Butautas:
- Congratulations to my colleague Rimas Kurtinaitis and his team on a confident win. They played well today, especially on offense, and they showed us our place. They maintained a high tempo for all 40 minutes. Unfortunately, we couldn't play man-to-man defense and lost the battle under the basket and on the perimeter. I have to talk about Vyaltsev's game. He couldn't be stopped and set several records. On defense, we were miserable. That's the first thing we have to work on. I wish Khimki success in the VTB United League and the Euroleague.