Championat.ru | Henry Domercant

08.11.2010 Saint Petersburg’s Spartak won an away PBL game, 86:80, over Moscow region’s Khimki, mainly due to the magnificent play of Henry Domercant who managed to score 33 points.

Even long before the beginning of the fourth tour of the national championship it could be securely predicted that the confrontation of Khimki and Petersburg’ Spartak in Moscow region will be the most interesting one. Though, undoubtedly, nobody could guarantee that the destiny of this event will be resolved at the last seconds (indeed, after the two fantastic outcomes in Krasnodar and Kazan, where due to Chalmers’s fantastic goal upon the final siren and Pustogvar’s miss from under the ring a moment before one Lokomotiv Kuban and UNICS gained difficult victories, that was not needed), but it was no doubt that we were in for a show with a serious fight and the emotions will exceed the limits.
Khimki had awaited the match in an excellent mood, presenting one of the PBL’s dark horses. Could it be otherwise, when four days before no other than the champion of Spain fell a victim to Langford and company in the Euroleague? But the vice champion of Russia had had no time to celebrate the victory, according to Sergey Moni, Spartak is not a rival to slight: “The Petersburgers are an excellent team. Its lineup includes good players, natural leaders. I’m sure the potential of our rival is very high, and it has not yet been fully realized. In addition, Zvi Sherf is an experienced and reputed specialist. So, we understand it will surely not be easy to us".

It is difficult not to agree with one of the leading players of the country. Spartak is really not as simple as many seem to think. To have managed to stay in the plus after the three start encounters of the championship with the schedule they had then, was a clear attainment. Just the away games in Kazan and Moscow where they encountered Central Sports Army Club taxed so much! But the squad from the Northern Palmira stood the strain and not only put up a good show with which the majority of the PBL clubs would have been honored, but dictated their will to the rival in both encounters. And if only a tittle of luck had been on their side in the game with the domestic flagship, the field “defeats” would have boasted a proud zero up till the present day. Hardly anyone would have been surprised then.

The absence of the Iron Keith in the starting lineup of the hosts brought about bewilderment. Despite a minor injury received in the game with Caja Laboral, he warmed up before the game just as others did. Though, the hosts had no need to recall his absence up to the middle of the first quarter, for Planinic won the debut completely from Ponkrashov, first by scoring the shot from about five meters over his former partner’s hands, then by stealing the ball from his dribbling, with an immediate scoring from behind the bowline by Panin, and then once more by blocking the horizon to Anton when he attempted at scoring a frontal triple. By that moment the score was already 7:0 – it was Savrasenko who executed a half-hook over the opponent after a penetrating pass to the three-second zone.

Do you think that Sherf took a timeout in order to bring his charges to? No, he even didn’t think of that! Because he knew that his lineup had a player capable of enkindling the team. And the name of this “monster” is Henry Domercant. What this defense player made in the next 270 seconds cannot be termed otherwise than a miracle – three crazy shots from behind the three-point bowline, a couple of which with an almost horizontal deviation, two dagger trips to under the board and, which is of no less importance, the excellent play in defense. When the smoke after the sally of the American cleared away, it turned out that the red and whites had advanced 18:2 and were leading "+9". Had Ponkrashov not started showing off in the tail end of the period, the guests would have surely retained the advantage, but the ball handler contrived to botch all his open shots (just four misses in a quarter), including the knockout triple upon the siren, and allowed Khimki to reduced the difference by half  – 16:20.

However, Petersburg’s gladiators were not an easy game. In the break Sherf sent Ponkrashov to the bench, explained to the team how to build the positional offensive without him, dispatching the crazy Henry as an attack designer, and asked the defense not to slack. This was quite enough to stage another spurt 11:0 and bring the difference to the score catastrophic for the hosts, "-15". One could only guess what shouts would have been audible from their cloakroom during the great break, had not stakes been placed out of dire straits on Lonchar don Sergio. The stake on the Croat whom the partners had primed all the time remaining before the break came off. He scored five out of six shots each time from the game and the penalty line and singly brought the team back from oblivion, introducing pepper into the match and making, after Domercant, a serious claim to get into the symbolic five of the tour – 34:36.

It was the quite different Khimki who turned up for the second half of the game, charged, goal-minded, and insolent in a sportsmanlike manner – in a word, those who defeated Dusko Ivanovic’s team on Wednesday. All their attempts, however, at getting ahead and gaining a decisive advantage were balked by the active counteraction on the side of the Petersburgers. Even the activity of Langford who had been hibernating the entire first half (the most valuable player of PBL scored no single point during the first 20 minutes, making four misses from the game and doing nothing useful except a block shot) was of no avail. Despite Keith’s scored shot on a foul 52 seconds before the last intermission which allowed the yellow and blues to lead "+7", it was felt that it was still oh so far from the end result in this encounter.

After a next regular miracle by Domercant it became clear that Spartak was not going to give up (again, as in the beginning of the game). After an exchange Henry remained vis-?-vis Eze and, dragging him to the bowline, scored a shot from the distance of about nine meters a la Teodosic of Spain’s national team – 58:60. And then it was time for Zupan who had sat all the third quarter on the bench. Miha’s bombs reminded everyone what the strength of the Slovenian national team lies in and that it is useless to confront them when they get into full swing. It should be noted that not an insignificant role in Spartak’s decisive dash (it would become obvious later that it turned out to be decisive) comprising even three scored goals by the curly brown-haired was played by Ponkrashov who was overjoyed at his accurate, timely, and, which is the main thing, original passes – 74:68 5.19 prior the end of the game.

It is common knowledge that the tail end is one of Scariolo’s weakest points. Therefore, it was no wonder that Khimki could not put up an intelligible attack. Langford made two moral attempts to save the homeland, reminding everybody who is who, but Kolesnikov who scented the victory proved that he had mastered David Blatt’s lessons thoroughly over the summer, and freeing himself on the bowline at the right moment, sent without scruples the orange sphere into the basket. And when 45 seconds later Fridzon who let drop the weary Domercant and earned the fifth foul was irrevocably sent to the bench to rest, all was clear completely. The hosts made use of, naturally for form’s sake, the tactic of fouls, but in the most critical moment, when it was "-3", forgot to foul and then left the same Zupan alone under their own ring, who with a juicy dunk shot rounded off the match – 86:80.

Lev Savari