MBA Moscow beat Parma Perm 93-91 in the VTB United League on Tuesday evening. The hosts held off a determined challenge from fifth-placed Parma to secure a narrow victory at home. By then the crowd had clearly sensed something special was unfolding.
We had backed the visitors for this fixture, giving them 53 per cent confidence. The match went another way entirely, and here's the thing — it was the home side's resilience that changed the complexion of the game. Not pretty, not predictable, but effective.
MBA Moscow sit seventh after forty games, with eighteen wins and twenty-two defeats. Their recent run has been difficult: five losses in a row across all competitions, including defeats to Lokomotiv Kuban and CSKA Moscow. To be fair, they had not looked like finding a rhythm.
Parma Perm arrive with twenty-two wins from forty matches, but their last outing against Zenit St Petersburg saw them lose 99-85. They had won their previous game against Uralmash 86-71, so form was patchy heading into this encounter. The visitors pressed hard but could not find the extra gear when it mattered.
The victory keeps MBA Moscow in the hunt for a higher finish, though the gap to the top four remains substantial. Parma drop further behind the leaders, and the standings will not shift dramatically after one match. The table goes out of the window in these games, but the points matter in the longer view.
