In the away game of the 2nd round of the FIBA Europe Cup Tsmoki-Minsk met Crailsheim in Germany. And they won - 81:77 (25:20, 19:10, 14:31, 23:16).
Starting fives
Tsmoki-Minsk: Angelo Warner, Yauheni Beliankou, Aliaksei Trastsinetski, Stefan Jankovic, Robert Upshaw.
Crailsheim: TJ Shorts, Terrell Harris, Jaren Lewis, Fabian Bleck, Richmond Aririguzoh.
Game scenario
In the opening attacks, the opponents immediately gave the audience a basketball beauty: Harris and Upshaw scored with dunks. On the 3rd minute, the home team took the lead 7: 2, but everything on the court changed quite quickly. Tsmoki-Minsk not only evened the score (thanks to Beliankou), but also steadily began to increase the advantage. Until the end of the 1st quarter, Minsk answered each point scored by Crailsheim with two, that allowed Tsmoki to leave for a short break with +5. Our long-range artillery worked great: Clark, Dodo, Blizniuk, Jankovic, Beliankou - almost everyone who entered the court aptly shooted from the perimeter.
And as soon as the second period began, the center Upshaw also entered the cohort of snipers, the opponent did not expect it at all. By the way, Robert did a great job in defense: after his three blocks, the rivals were simply afraid to go into the Dragons paint. However, the whole Belarusian team deserved to be praised. Guys conscientiously and efficiently worked in defense, thanks to this Crailsheim in the second ten minutes was able to score 10 points, but conceded twice as much.
The first half ended with a series of funny episodes. 14 seconds before the siren, the Dragons did not understand each other when throwing the ball from the baseline and made a childish mistake - lost the ball. However, they managed to fix it. Warner rushed into the paint at great speed, but his shot was blocked. The hosts tightly closed all our players and it seemed that they had no chance to score in the remaining two seconds. Sly Warner decided everything wittily: he threw the ball into the opponent's back, catched the ball and calmly put it into the basket.
The beginning of the second half of the game Crailsheim spent on a courage and with a gap 10: 2 began a comeback. It was successful, and in the 25th minute Radosavljevic returned an equal score - 51:51. The Dragons bravely survived in unpleasant minutes and, with the help of Darol Zinenko and Stefan Jankovic, responded with the push 7: 0. The score remained equal for quite a long time, however, in the last seconds, thanks to Tsmoki mistake in defense, Lasisi put Crailsheim ahead with a long-range shot - 61:58.
Upshot
Teams entered the final five minutes with equal winning chances - 70:70. The exchange of productive attacks kept the Arena in suspense until the last moments. Fortunately, the dragons played this time more successfully. 19 seconds before the siren, our guys had a wonderful multi-move and brought Beliankou to a deep throw from the corner. Eugene did not disappoint - 79:77. Crailsheim took time-out to draw the last combination. Shorts could have completed it, but the defender did not score in the paint, and even fouled on Hernandez-Zinenko, who grabed the ball. Darol coolly converted both free throws and gave the team victory points. That’s a second victory in the FIBA Europe Cup!
Huge roles
Yauheni Beliankou with 18 efficiency points became the most useful in the Dragon’s roster. Shooting guard hit 5 threes and scored 18 points + 4 rebounds + 2 assists.
The number
11 - so many times our players successfully attacked from behind the arc, that helped the team to achieve an important away victory.
Scoring leaders
Tsmoki-Minsk: Jason Clark - 19 PTS, Yauheni Beliankou - 18 + 4 REB + 2 AST, Stefan Jankovic - 13 + 6 REB.
Crailsheim: TJ Shorts - 17 + 8 AST, Bogdan Radosavljevic - 16 PTS, Fabian Bleck - 14 + 10 REB, Terrell Harris - 10 PTS.
Rostislav Vergun, head coach:
A round of applause to my players. I think that is a great sign of a great team when you can line up at this kind of atmosphere when we in the clutch. I think it was a great experience for us and a great effort and win, so congratulations. A round of applause to the opponent, great team, very organized. And nice crowd - it’s a hard place to be in. I think it was the matter of 1-2 possessions at the end and we got fortunate to take advantage. It’s just a 2nd game of the group and everything is in from of us. And we will prepare to host Merlins at home.
Jason Clark:
We definitely stayed together to our role, we made a hard of ourselves. Two games, two FIBA Europe Cup games in a row. But I think anyway we are still together, play together. We effort to play as a very aggressive offensive team, aggressive defensive team. But I think we start to know how to do and we know how to play and we can up doing.
Next game
In the 3rd round of the FIBA Europe Cup, October 27, Tsmoki-Minsk will play in Danish Arhus against the Bakken Bears club. The game starts at 19.30 Belarus time.