Sports day after | Sir Henry’s show

02.02.2011 The outcomes of matches of St. Petersburg’s Spartak team depend now mainly on whether their snipers make good long throws. If they do not, the team experiences huge problems when attacking and loses even to an adversary of a lower class. If they do, the red and whites stage most brilliant games. Yesterday’s game against Maccabi from Haifa became such a game.

From the first minutes of the game it became clear that the spectators on the Yubileyny’s stands would not be bored: the basketball was open and fast. After a little more than two minutes the scoreboard showed the score 18:11; the margin of Spartak was ensured by the three-point shots of Domercant and Ponkrashov. The Israelis caught up a little, but then the hosts started the show of long shots. The initiators were the said Ponkrashov and Dragovic, and Domercant continued. Sir Henry scored in the first quarter from any positions and in the result scored 16 points in 20 minutes. Especially showy was the single run after a steal of the novice of the St. Petersburg team, Patrick Beverley, who in his turn was brilliant in defense.

The beginning of the second quarter was, however, bungled by the hosts. Domercant sat on a bench to take a rest, and meanwhile Maccabi made a dash 10:1 and came close to Spartak in the score. Zvi Sherf rapidly sent Domercant to the field, but for a time he was also unable to change the situation — the hosts would not score in game for five minutes. The breakthrough was made by Bashminov and Kotishevskiy. The former managed to snatch the ball in the course of a lengthy attack fighting in parterre, and the latter concluded this attack with a precise three-point throw. Bashminov was successful in fighting also under the adversary’s board. At the big break the hosts had a large margin: 44:33.

The third quarter was a benefit performance by Spartak and Patrick Beverley personally. The dashing dark-skinned defender thwarted any attempts of the Israelis to attack, took rebounds, made steals and in the meanwhile was smart enough to down three three-point shots in a row!
By the last twenty-minute stretch there was the single question: will Spartak manage to reach a hundred? And it really did! The magnificent pass of young Korchagin from about the middle of the field found Antic who soared over the ring and drove the ball in from above. The resulting score is 101:60. A crushing defeat!

The Spartak team won the third victory in the three games of the second group round and made a good claim for the first place in the group.

On 15 February Sherf’s charges will hold the next match of the Challenge Cup in the Israeli city Netanya against the local club Barak. Very soon there will be a game with Moscow’s Dynamo in the PBL championship, which will take place on the Yubileyny’s field on February 5.

Oleg Yevstifeyev

Challenge Cup. Men. 2nd Group Tournament. 3rd Round. Group I

Spartak (St. Petersburg, Russia) — Maccabi (Haifa, Israel) — 101:60 (33:18, 11:15, 30:12, 27:15)
•    Spartak: Domercant (21), Ponkrashov (13 + 6 passes), Beverley (13 + 8 rebounds), Antic (12), Dragovic (12), Kotishevskiy (12)
•    Maccabi: Killingsworth (13), Rothbart (10), Kadir (9)