Week Eight Recap

D.J. Cooper's miracle comeback, CSKA's dominating performance at home, Anthony Hilliard's monster game in Kazakhstan and more as we recap Week Eight of the regular season.

Escape
Krasny Oktyabr vs. Nymburk came down to the final seconds. After forcing a pair of turnovers and knocking down a pair of free throws, Nymburk led by three and had Maxim De Zeeuw at the line with a chance to ice the outcome.

But despite averaging 85% from the line, De Zeeuw missed both. Moments later, Oktyabr's D.J. Cooper was fouled, sending the American guard to the stripe for two freebies.

Trailing by three with one second remaining, Cooper needed to get creative. He sank the first attempt. On the second, Cooper missed intentionally, then crashed the lane for his own rebound, hitting the putback to force overtime!

Volgograd didn't look back in the extra period, outscoring Nymburk by eight (96-88) to secure an important win. As for Cooper, his miracle comeback ranks among the best moments yet of the season.

Domination
Rivals for more than a decade, CSKA and UNICS entered with identical 5-1 records and a chance to take over sole possession of 2nd place in the standings. Coming off two losses to Moscow last season, Kazan sought revenge. The Army Men, meanwhile, hoped to continue their domination of the Tatar club as well as bounce back from Friday's defeat to Unicaja in the Euroleague.

But despite the build-up, there ultimately would be very little drama on the court. CSKA scored the first nine points of the game, got Andrey Vorontsevich hot from the perimeter and locked down on defense to lead 54-29 at halftime. Kazan cut the deficit to 11 in the 4th quarter, outscoring CSKA 27-10, but never really threatened. The reigning champs win 81-70 and improve to 9-1 against UNICS in league competition.

Debut
There were two introductions for Saratov in Saturday's game against VEF. First, Alexey Vasilyev made his debut as head coach (Brad Greenberg remains on staff). Paul Stoll also made his first appearance for the Black-Whites, making it the first time two Mexican players have faced off in VTB United League (Mexico's Francisco Cruz plays for VEF). Stoll took round 1 of the Mexican derby as Avtodor protected its home court in an 86-74 win and gave Vasilyev an auspicious start in charge.

So Close
Despite a disappointing record, Astana has battled hard every game. Last week, the Kazakhs came back from 21 points down against VEF only to lose narrowly in the final minutes.

On Saturday vs. Tsmoki-Minsk, Ramunas Butautas's team came up a little short once again.

Behind most of the game, Astana trailed by 10 points with less than two minutes to play, before activating full-court pressure and outscoring the Belarusians 11-1 to force overtime!

But Astana couldn't seal the deal in the extra period. Tsmoki hung on for a dramatic 93-92 win, dropping the Kazakhs to 1-5 on the season.

Gutsy Effort
Vita is currently rebuilding its roster and only had seven men available for Sunday's game in Krasnoyarsk. Nonetheless, led by Irakli Chlaidze (6 3-pointers), Tbilisi made several comebacks against Enisey and even cut the deficit to four with a few minutes left in regulation.

Enisey, however, responded with a 9-3 run, icing the 83-73 victory at home. Vita remains without a win, while Krasnoyarsk improves to 3-4.

Stat of the Week
+21 - Zenit's margin of victory against Bisons (83-62).

That's St. Petersburg's biggest win yet this season. Sitting at 6-0, Vasily Karasev's club remains undefeated and in sole possession of 1st place.

Fan of the Week

Quotable
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Ainars Bagatskis:
- In the first few minutes of the game, we seemed to forget everything we had practiced. We lost the game in the 1st quarter. Lokomotiv scored 30 points because of our mistakes. After that, it was tough to come back against such an experienced team. We have problems with our roster, but I repeat: there's no such thing as bad luck, just new opportunities. Today, guys who hadn't received much playing time had a chance to play and demonstrated that they can be counted on.

... Indeed, Nizhny Novgorod had a miserable 1st quarter, giving up 30 points, while scoring just 15. Missing three backcourt players (Eric Maynor, Maxim Grigoryev and Evgeny Baburin), Nizhny Novgorod was unable to mount a comeback (92-69).

MVP of the Week
Anthony Hilliard (Tsmoki-Minsk). The 29-year-old guard led Minsk to its 4th win of the season, dropping a season-high 37 points (15-23 from the field, including 5-8 from downtown) to go with 11 rebounds, three assists and a 39 efficiency rating. 

Play of the Week

Photo of the Week