Russia (bbabo.net), - In the tournament of the first division of the men's Super League, held under the auspices of the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF), the first round of the regular championship has come to an end. On New Year's Eve, the leader leaves the capital "Runa", which recently signed a contract with the champion of the NBA 2016 center Timofei Mozgov.

Let us remind you that 15 teams play in Superleague 1, which at the preliminary stage play with each other in two rounds according to the traveling system (matches at home and away). It is allowed to use no more than two legionnaires in the trains. According to the results of the regular season, the eight strongest will fight in the playoffs for the title of the champion of the Super League, which is now owned by BC Samara.

This season, triarchy has been observed in the table for some time. Runa, the current winner of the Russian Cup, Temp-SUMZ-UMMC from the town of Revda, Sverdlovsk region, and the team with rich traditions and history, Uralmash (Yekaterinburg), were on a par.

The December matches, if they did not bring complete clarity to the ranking of the teams, then at least determined the sole leader. In the middle of the table, everything is extremely tight, there are many matches with unpredictable results; in the second round, an absolute aggravation of the struggle for places in the playoffs is expected.

In autumn and the first month of winter, the main hallmark of Superleague 1 was the presence in the ranks of the participating teams of two basketball players who played for the Russian national team at the 2019 World Cup in China - Grigory Motovilov (Temp-SUMZ-UMMC) and Andrey Sopin (Runa "). But Motovilov recently moved to the much less visible Kupol-Rodniki (Izhevsk), and in general, in the very near future the situation with the rank-list of the division's “stars” should change. "Runa" not only signed a contract with Mozgov, but already officially announced it. It is not yet clear in what real sports form the bronze medalist of the 2012 Olympics is. Last season, he recovered for a long time from an injury, spent only six matches in the United League championship for Khimki near Moscow, however, gaining an average of 8.3 points per game in them.

Khimki moved from the United League to Superleague 1 and are in the role of an outsider here. Mozgov was in the status of a free agent for the first part of the season, and now he is employed. By the way, his former Khimki teammate, defender Yegor Vyaltsev, was out of business for half the fall, but now he is becoming one of the key performers in the ranks of Samara.

The latest personnel news before the New Year is impressive: Evgeny Pashutin, ex-coach of the Russian national team, who recently left PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban (Krasnodar), has been appointed the new “helmsman” of Uralmash.

From the calendar games held in December, a number of particularly interesting matches can be distinguished. Temp-SUMZ-UMMC made a misfire in Novosibirsk - 60:65. But then the residents of Revda rehabilitated themselves in their city, upsetting the Samara athletes, in whom Vyaltsev shone (23 points) - 90:83. In the next round, “Samara” suffered another defeat - 82:83 in the city of Verkhnyaya Pyshma, where Uralmash received rivals. And "Runa" won the most important victory in Revda, and with a minimal advantage - 80:79. The decisive shot in the asset of Fedor Klyuchnikov.

A week ago, the decoration of the first round was the reckless Ural derby between two representatives of the Sverdlovsk region. "Temp-SUMZ-UMMC" broke the resistance of "Uralmash" only in the second additional five minutes at home - 106: 104. American Justin Roberson (28 points) played the role of the first violin among the guests. Danil Aksenov distinguished himself in the ranks of the “Tempo” (24, including five hits from a long distance).

It remains to be surprised at the perspicacity of the compilers of the calendar, who on a separate date and the last in 2021 put the match "Uralmash" - "Runa". The intrigue in this confrontation was this: either at the finish of the first round there will be a dual power of rivals in the game in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, or "Runa" leaves for a short break as the sole leader, and the gap from the closest pursuers will be two victories.

The second option turned out to be "working". Runa prevailed with a score of 81:80. although the final quarter of the Muscovites started at "minus 7". Yuri Pershin made the winning throw a couple of seconds before the end of regular time. Here is a trio of the most productive basketball players in the capital's club, led by head coach Oleg Bartunov: Fedor Klyuchnikov (19), Artem Komissarov (17), Ilya Popov (16).

The championship will resume on January 9th.

Positions of teams in Superleague 1

1. Runa (Moscow) - 13 wins - 1 defeat;

2. "Temp-SUMZ-UMMC" (Revda) - 11-3;

3. Uralmash (Yekaterinburg) - 11-3;

4. "University-Ugra" (Surgut) - 9-5;

5. BC "Samara" - 8-6;

6. "Irkut" (Irkutsk) - 8-6;

7. MBA (Moscow) - 7-7;

8. CSKA-2 (Moscow) - 7-7;

9. BC "Novosibirsk" - 6-8;

10. "Barnaul" (Altai Territory) - 6-8;

11. "Dome-Springs" (Izhevsk) - 5-9;

12. Dynamo Vladivostok - 5-9;

13. "Ufimets" (Ufa) - 4-10;

14. "TsOP-Lokomotiv-Kuban" (Krasnodar Territory) - 3-11;

15. "Khimki" (Moscow region) - 2-12).

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