Top scorers
UNICS: Valerii Likhodey (19), Errick McCollum (14 + 5 assists), Jamar Smith (13 + 5 assists), Dmitrii Uzinskii (11)
Tsmoki-Minsk: Branko Mirkovic (20), Robert Lowery(16 + 7 assists), Maxim Salash (8 + 7 rebounds).
Kazan took the lead quickly with the help of started Valerii Likhodey – 15:6. The hosts kept the rythm and before the second quarter Errick McCollum made his team’s lead double digit (25:13).
Valerii Likhodey’s inspired game (7 for 8 from the field, 16 first half points) gave UNICS the opportunity to decide the game in first 2 quarters of play – 42:21 with 4 minutes left before the big break. However, Minsk were good from the paint (10 for 16 2-pointers) and saved chances via 11:3 run – 45:32 UNICS lead after 20 minutes of game.
Tsmoki-Minsk made 3 threes in a row after switching sides: Robert Lowey, Alexandr Pustohvar and Branko Mirkovic (41:48). UNICS answered with Likhodey and Dmitrii Uzinskii’s accurate long-range shots, and that let Kazan take the control over the game again. During the third the gap reached 17 points (60:43) and before the decisive quarter they were up by 15 (67:52).
Tsmoki continued to fight in their signature way and tried to turn the game into clutch, few times reducing the gap to 10 points. However, in the middle of the fourth UNICS made 8:2 run, when Uzinskii hit 2 threes – 79:63 with 3 minutes left on the shotclock. After this, Kazan confidently made it to the win, which is tenth for the team in regular season.
UNICS head coach Dimitrios Priftis:
– We played well tonight, were inspired and serious. Yes, of course at some points we slowed down. But almost the whole game we played well. Now we have time for rest and then we will have to prepare for the next game on February 29.
Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Rostislav Vergun:
– We didn’t realize all that we planned to tonight. UNICS are obviously playing good defence. Mostly because of this we couldn’t share the ball properly, couldn’t find the better ways to complete our offensive possessions.
