Today, the long–awaited basketball event of the year - the semi-final of the XXVI Cup of Belarus between the teams “MINSK” and “Borisfen” took place in the Mogilev sports complex “Olympian”. The match ended with the victory of MINSK with the score 82:62 (13:17, 25:14, 25:15, 19:16).
Starting five:
MINSK: Daniil Kasko, Benjamin-Pavel Dodoo, Aliaksei Trastsinetskii, Darol Hernandez Zinenko, Uladzislau Blizniuk.
“Borisfen": Maxim Miroshnichenko, Ilya Polonevich, Alexandr Kopachev, Daren Agnew, Artem Malkov.
Game scenario
The hosts of the court tried to please their fans with the first points scored at the start of the match, but MINSK were not inferior in accuracy – Danik Kasko scored an accurate “three-point”, and Supreme Hannah, Vlad Blizniuk and Benjamin-Pavel Dodoo helped their team score points from an average distance. However, due to a slightly higher percentage of shots, Borysthenes were able to leave for the first break with a slight advantage (17:13).
Our team stepped up work on rebounds in the second quarter and, by turning on the pressure, was able to get the lead on the guest court: three minutes before the end of the quarter, Minsk residents got “+2” on the scoreboard thanks to an accurate throw performed by Vlad Mikulski. A 6:0 scoring run from Rostislav Vergun's wards forced Borisfen to take a timeout (32:28). Uladzislau Blizniuk, Zach Smith and Uladzislau Mikulski scored repeated hits into the opponent's ring from an average distance in the second ten minutes of the game. The teams went to the big break with a score of 38:31.
At the start of the third, Minsk residents were able to get a double-digit advantage on the scoreboard thanks to accurate throws by Darol Hernandez Zinenko and Benjamin-Pavel Dodoo. A bright “three-point” shot from Daniil Kasko allowed MINSK to make a breakthrough of 7 points. In a quick breakaway, Kiryl Sitnik, with a spectacular shot, increased the difference in the score between the teams by another 2 points, and Andrei Krivonos again took advantage of the timeout (49:34). The entertainment of the duel continued to increase with every minute: after a 6-point retaliatory jerk from the opponent from Mogilev, Rostislav Vergun took a timeout. The conversation with the coach helped the Minsk players to increase the pace of the game and retain the lead at the end of the quarter – 63:46.
Interchange
At the beginning of the final quarter, MINSK scored a beautiful advantage of 21 points on the scoreboard (69:48). Uladzislau Mikulski managed to get 6 points in our team alone. With a bright “three-piece” from Uladzislau Blizniuk and a throw from an average distance from the captain, MINSK did not allow the opponent to reduce the gap (74:59). The match ended with a confident victory of our team with a score of 82:62.
The most productive:
MINSK: Uladzislau Mikulski – 15 + 3 REB + 4 AST + 1 STL + 1 block, Uladzislau Blizniuk – 14 + 2 REB + 7 AST + 1 STL, Kiryl Sitnik – 11 + 2 REB + 2 AST + 1 STL.
“Borysthenes": Daren Agnew – 23 + 11 REB + 1 AST + 2 STL, Malik Porter – 10 + 5 REB + 1 AST.
MINSK head coach Rostislav Vergun: ”I want to congratulate everyone on the victory. It is always difficult to play here in Mogilev. Most of the playing time we played very solid basketball, which is good news. In general, all well done. We are waiting for our fans at the finals tomorrow: we will definitely need your support.”
Uladzislau Mikulski: “Congratulations to everyone on the victory, we played as one team, fought to the last. But, nothing is finished yet, we have to take 1 more victory tomorrow and win the Cup. We are focused, tuned in. Thank you to all our fans for their support.”
Tomorrow at 19:30 in the Sport Complex “Olympian“ in the final match for the main trophy of the country ”MINSK“ will meet with the winner of the second semi–final - ”Grodno-93". The broadcast of the match will be available on the TV channel “Belarus 5”, as well as “Belarus 5 Internet" and Sport-TV.by . We are rooting for MINSK!