Andrei Kirilenko pounds 35 as Russia thumps Great Britain 95-75 - London Olympics Men Basketball Recap
In their first preliminary round game of the London Olympics 2012, Russia eased past hosts Great Britain with a comfortable 95-75 win on Sunday night.
Andrei Kirilenko, who only recently completed a move back to NBA, put up a splendid display with a game high total of 35 points. Another one of Minnesota Timberwolves’ latest signings, Alexey Shved capped off the night with 16 points and 13 assists. He shot the ball 6 of 11 from the field and 2 of 4 from three point land in the game.
The third player crossing the double figure mark for the Russians was Vitaliy Fridzon who finished off with 14 points. The number 7 guard shot the ball 5 of 8 from the field.
For the home side, Luol Deng – an NBA star out of Chicago Bulls - provided a rather mediocre fight with 26 points as it took him 27 attempts to achieve that total.
Pops Mensah Bonsu played well down in the post to finish off with 22 points and Joel Freeland managed his way to 13 points.
Britain’s held a great advantage on the glass as they out-rebounded the Russians 47-32 with 25 of them coming on the offensive end. However the home side were unable to capitalize their advantage. The Russians played the game with slick distribution of the ball to record 24 assists.
The game started on an even not and it was only in the final three minutes of the frame when the Russians pulled away and took a 24-19 advantage. The first 4 and a half minutes of the second quarter saw the Russians compile a 14-6 scoring burst to take their advantage into double figures, and from there on, they never looked back.
The Russians continued to assert their authority and outscored GB 7-2 in the final 1:18 of the first half, which ended at 49-34.
The British tried to rally in the third, but had no answers to a consistent and accurate Russian offense. GB outscored the Russians 24-22 in the frame, but despite getting outscored the Russians were never really bothered.
It took about 7 minutes of the final period for the Russians to prolong their advantage above 20 points – a margin their maintained till the final buzzer to win this one 95-75 in the end.
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