On January 29, the final home match of the first stage took place at the Minsk Arena. Our team met PARMA. The match ended with a victory for the Russians with the score 88:59 (20:18, 22:11, 21:12, 25:18).
Starting five:
MINSK: Daniil Kasko, Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson, Grigorii Motovilov, Vadzim Stubeda, Benjamin-Pavel Dodoo.
PARMA: C.J. Bryce, B. J. Johnson, Richard Solomon, Isaeah Reese, Ruslan Abdulbasirov.
The course of the game
Despite the fact that the guests of the site scored a 5-point breakthrough at the start of the quarter, the Minsk residents showed character and responded with an incredible number of “three-point” hits. Daniil Kasko was the first to make an accurate long-range hit, Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson charged three accurate shots in a row from behind the arc, thanks to which Alexey Sukhovetsky's wards seized the lead on the court. After exchanging a number of hits, our team left for the first break with a score of 18:20.
In the second quarter, Evgeniy Pashutin's wards took a faster pace of play and managed to increase the advantage in the score to double digits. Aleksandar Zecevic, Daniil Kasko, Jakob Cebasek and Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson scored hits in MINSK. The teams went to the big break with a score of 29:42.
In the third quarter, Minsk residents failed to reduce the double-digit difference in the score. Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson took over the leadership in our team, who alone brought the team 7 points in 10 minutes of the game, Benjamin-Pavel Dodoo also scored an accurate three-pointer and the teams left with a score of 41:63 at the final break.
Interchange
In the final quarter, the Perm Region team managed to keep the right pace for victory. Anton Blizniuk, a 16-year-old lightweight forward, made his debut in the last minutes of the match today in Minsk, who managed to score his first “three-point” in the VTB United League. In the final 10 minutes of the game, Evgeniy Pashutin's wards managed to maintain a winning attitude in fast and aggressive attacks and ended the match with a victory with a score of 88:59.
The most effective:
MINSK: Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson – 23 + 2 REB + 5 AST + 1 pass, Aleksandar Zecevic – 9 + 4 REB + 2 AST + 1 STL + 1 block, Daniil Kasko – 7 + 5 REB + 2 STL.
PARMA: Richard Solomon – 21 + 8 REB + 1 AST + 2 STL, B. J. Johnson – 18 + 6 REB + 2 AST + 1 STL + 1 block, C. J. Bryce – 16 + 6 REB + 9 AST + 1 STL.
Acting head coach of MINSK Aliaksei Sukhavetski: "Congratulations to PARMA on reaching the top six. In our first game, we completely lost the rebound, and at the meeting, the first thing we discussed was to give ourselves completely to the game, not to lose the single combat, try not to be blown off the field by rebounds in attack. At the end of the game, the way the guys gave themselves to the game – I'm happy, thanks to them for that. Unfortunately, somewhere we did not have enough to bring the ball to the players who could score at one point or another of the game. And if we were leading at the beginning, we couldn't build up our advantage. Then we couldn't close the gap in the score due to these actions. Someone calls it a “player class", we try to work on it. So far, it's working out as it is.”
Minsk residents will play the final match of the first stage on the road on February 3 against Avtodor Saratov. The match starts at 15:00.