Tsmoki-Minsk lost away game to Saratov Avtodor 79:95 (11:28, 21:21, 19:21, 28:25).
Starting fives:
Tsmoki-Minsk: Angelo Warner, Jason Clark, Yauheni Beliankou, Stefan Yankovic, Robert Upshaw.
Avtodor: Kenny Chery, Zeljko Sakic, Evgenii Kolesnikov, Philip Scrubb, Grant Jerret.
In first minutes Dragons took the lead. After a long-range shot by Beliankou, they took the lead 5:4. But Tsmoki strongly provoked the rivals. For the next 5 minutes, due to the tight defense, our team could not score in any way, while Avtodor scored 19 points. Minsk could not defend well against center Jerrett, who even scored from the distance. And it was also difficult to resist the well-coordinated collective actions of the opponent, who was moving the ball around the court as quickly as possible and found a player to shoot without resistance.
A small time-out was enough for Rostislav Vergun to "wake up" the players. In the next quarter Tsmoki-Minsk played in a completely different way: boldly, actively, efficiently. Jankovic remembered that he can shoot from the distance (scored twice in a row), Warner persistently entered the paint, that was actually not allowed for the Dragons at the beginning of the game, a couple of times Upshaw pushed his opponent and gently put the ball into the basket, Porolev hammered powerful dunk and forced Emil Rajiovic to call to the time-out. The second quarter was finished on equal terms, what confirmed by equal score for the period 21:21.
The second half passed with an equal count of effective attacks by both teams. Blizniuk finally uncovered his long-range gun - he scored four times from the distance. Clark supported his partner with a 3-point hit. Upshaw found common ground with point guard Warner and dunked he ball three times, once with a beautiful alley-op.
Minsk team effort was worthy enough. In some cases team pressure worked effectively, Dragons were successful in fastbreaks. However, it was not possible to eliminate a serious gap from Avtodor, which was allowed at the beginning of the game.
Prominent roles
Uladzislau Blizniuk spent the most minutes on the court - 28.35. Guard was especially useful in the second half, when he returned his team to the game with several 3-point hits. Uladzislau scored 4 from 7 threes, scored 14 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal.
Scoring leaders.
Tsmoki-Minsk: Robert Upshaw 18 PTS + 5 REB + 1 AST, Uladzislau Blizniuk 14 PTS + 2 REB + 2 AST + 1 STL, Angelo Warner 14 PTS + 5 REB + 7 AST + 3 STL, Jason Clark
13 PTS + 4 AST + 2 STL.
Avtodor: Jaron Johnson 18 PTS + 5 REB + 4 AST, Grant Jarrett 11 PTS + 5 REB, Kenny Chery 10 PTS + 5 AST, Philip Srubb 10 PTS.
Comment from Rostislav Vergun:
It was difficult to expect a positive result when you are losing on boards 39-24. Two key players have solid zeros in their statistics. We had three equal quarters. With such roster composition we could impose a struggle and resist the opponent. But in some specific combinations, we have got a one-way game. We are going to draw some conclusions. We should understand who we can count on and with whom we can move on. Congratulations to the opponent with a deserved victory.
Next game.
In the 5th round of the VTB United League, at October 31 , Tsmoki-Minsk will play in Poland against Zielona Gora. The game will start at 17.00 Belarus time.