The MINSK men's team went to Kazan, where they will play against UNICS in the Basket Hall on December 21. Read more about the opponent in our preview.
Season 2023/24
At the start of the season, Minsk residents met with Kazan residents on the home floor. Since then, UNICS has risen to second place in the standings, with 12 wins in 16 matches. Velimir Perasovic's wards lost only to Samara, Runa, CSKA and Lokomotiv-Kuban.
UNICS will host the match after a winning away series. The most productive player of the team can be called the MVP of the playoffs last season, Nenad Dimitrievic, who is among the ten most productive players in the League and among the top four passers. The average statistics of the point guard in 15 games amounted to 16.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.5 steals in almost 27 minutes on the floor.
Marcos Knight averages 15.2 points per game, 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.8 steals (2nd in the League in steals).
Another player of the Kazan team, center Ismael Bako, leads the rating of VTB EL players with a blockshot score of 1.6.
Defender of MINSK Ivan Aladka: “The next game will be against UNICS on the road. They are a good team with a good coach who plays aggressively in defense and offense. First of all, we are determined to fight for every ball and not give in to the desire.”
The roster of the opponent
UNICS, Kazan
Guards
1. Nenad Dimitrijevic, 23.02.1998, 190 cm, North Macedonia;
4. Artem Komolov, 01.06.1993, 193 cm, Russia;
5. Dmitriy Kulagin, 01.07.1992, 197 cm, Russia;
8. Vyacheslav Zaitcev, 28.08.1989, 190 cm, Russia;
9. Marcos Knight, 09.24.1989, 191 cm, USA;
24. Evgeniy Kolesnikov, 26.12.1985, 195 cm, Russia;
32. Erick Green, 09.05.1991, 190 cm, USA.
Forwards
7. Louis Labeyrie, 11.02.1992, 208 cm, France;
13. Mark Tikhonenko, 13.03.1998, 203 cm, Russia;
22. Alexandr Stulenkov, 09.08.1992, 206 cm, Russia;
25. Vladislav Odinokov, 22.03.2000, 202 cm, Russia.
Centers
3. Jalen Reynolds, 30.12.1992, 208 cm, USA;
21. Ismael Bako, 10.10.1995, 208 cm, Belgium;
31. Ivan Lazarev, 31.01.1991, 210 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Velimir Perasovic, Croatia.
The game will start at 19:00 and will be available for viewing on the VTB United League website, as well as on Belarus 5 Internet.