Today, the long–awaited autumn event for all basketball fans took place within the walls of the Falcon Club Arena - the first home match of our men's team in the VTB United League of the 2022/23 season. In comparison with last season, the team was replenished with a legionnaire Zach Smith, as well as Belarusian players Vlad Mikulski and Kiryl Sitnik, a young player Vadzim Tratsiak also played for Minsk residents in the match. Unfortunately, our team couldn't cope with the pressure of the guests – 48:77 (8:22, 14:18, 11:24, 15:13).
Starting five:
MINSK: Daniil Kasko, Aliaksei Trastisnetski, Uladzislau Mikulski, Zachary Smith, Uladzislau Blizniuk.
PARMA-PARI: Tylor Ongvae, Dime Malik, Gleb Sheiko, Alexandr Platunov, Danila Pokhodyaev.
Game scenario:
The guests had a breakthrough of 8 points at the start of the match, the captain of the Minsk team, Aliaksei Trastsinetski, took the course of the game into his own hands and brought the first 3 points to our team. After the opponent moved a double-digit number on the scoreboard, Rostislav Vergun took a timeout (3:11). Unfortunately, the Perm team took the lead in the first quarter, while our guys were looking for the right pace, not having time to orient themselves under the opponent's ring, and thereby giving them the opportunity to make more rebounds. Only a minute and a half before the end of the first quarter, Kiryl Sitnik scored two more points in a jump from Vlad Blizniuk. Meanwhile, the Ural team has already moved beyond the second dozen on the scoreboard. In the last seconds of the quarter, Kiryl Sitnik made another spectacular “three point shot”, again with the submission of Vlad Blizniuk. The teams went to the break with a score of 8:22.
At the start of the second quarter, the audience was pleased with a spectacular blockshot from Zack Smith, and Daniil Barysevich with an accurate shot helped the team get a double–digit number on the scoreboard - 10:24. Aliaksei Trastinetski and Zack Smith scored two more points from the free throw line, thereby reducing the gap by exactly half (12:24). Uladzislau Blizniuk, Daniil Barysevich and Darol Hernandez Zinenko tried to reduce the gap with accurate shots. However, the wards of Evgeny Pashutin continued to press, the quarter ended with a score of 22:40.
Interchange:
Unfortunately, the third quarter reopened with shots in the ring from the guests, and the accuracy of our guys when throwing from different distances didn't want to confirm expectations. In half a quarter, only Darol Hernandez-Zinenko was able to get close to the opponent's ring with accurate shots twice. Perhaps, feeling the tremendous importance of the fans' support, the guys were nervous and made offensive mistakes and losses. The score of 26:56 and a disappointing difference of 30 points forced Rostislav Vergun to take another timeout. The conversation with the coach encouraged the Minsk residents, and Kiryl Sitnik promptly loaded the “three-point”, and then again pleased the fans with another shot. But the Minsk residents failed to significantly reduce the gap, the teams left with a score of 33:64 for the last break.
In the final quarter, frequent misses began to haunt PARMA-PARI, while Kiryl Sitnik scored 4 points for MINSK in one spurt. An accurate shot from Vadzim Tratsiak cheered up the Minsk residents, and the number of points scored for the quarter became equal – both teams had 7, and PARMA-PARI decided to take the first time-out for the game. Unfortunately, the discussion of the tactics of the game did not bring significant changes, the match ended with the defeat of Minsk residents with a score of 48:77.
The most productive:
MINSK: Kiryl Sitnik – 16 + 2 REB + 3 AST + 3 STL, Daniil Barysevich – 8 + 1 REB + 1 AST + 1 STL, Darol Hernandez-Zinenko – 8 + 9 REB + 3 AST + 1 STL + 2 block.
PARMA – PARI: Alexandr Platunov: 19 +2 REB + 4 AST + 3 STL, Justin Roberson – 11 + 2 REB + 3 AST + 3 STL, Gleb Sheiko-10 + 1 REB + 4 AST + 1 STL.
Rostislav Vergun, head coach of MINSK:
— First of all, I will apologize to the fans. I'm sure they expected more, and today there was a very cool atmosphere in the arena, congratulations to everyone on the start of the championship and another basketball season. As for us, I'm sure we can play better. It is difficult to find an excuse when we missed so many free throws from under the ring, were not aggressive enough either in attack or defense. Probably, we'll put it down to the excitement and excessive desire of young guys to prove themselves. I know that we can do better and we don't have much time to prove it and prepare for the next games to prove ourselves at our best.
Next game:
On October 8, our team will play with the silver medalists of last season – CSKA Moscow. The match will take place at the opponent's home court in Megasport at 2.00 PM. The broadcast of the match will be available on the official website of the VTB United League, the TV channels “Start” and “Match!TV".