On January 19, at 18:00 Moscow time, the VTB United League match between MINSK and Samara will be held at the Samara Sports Palace. For Minsk residents, this will be the final match of the first stage of the regular season of the United League, after which the team will face the second stage in pool B, where PARMA-PARI, Avtodor, Samara, Enisey and Astana will also play. Read more about the nearest rival in our preview.
Season 2022/23
Samara is on the 7th line of the standings, having won 8 out of 21 matches. Sergey Bazarevich's team has won twice this season“Astana” and “PARMA-PARI”, also in previous meetings the team was stronger than “Enisey” (92:86), “Avtodor” (87:82), “Pari NN” (90:52) and our team (80:68).
The location of the club from our previous meeting, which took place on the home ground of Minsk on October 31, left Aizea Reese (the American defender moved to PARMA-PARI) and Philip Gafurov (the Russian forward returned to the location of CSKA).
In November, the Russian club announced the signing of a contract with American defender Jordan Theodore. And yesterday, on January 17, Samara announced the signing of a contract with Russian center Vladimir Ivlev, who in the 2021/2022 season with CSKA took part in 11 VTB United League matches (2.1 points and 2 rebounds on average per match) and 4 Euroleague matches.
The leader of the opponent in scoring on average per game is the American defender Marcos Knight – 16.0. Also, in the 21st match, Marcos averaged 4.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Thomas Malcolm demonstrates the best result with rebounds from Samaritans – 6.5. The forward adds 11.8 points, 2.1 assists, 1.0 steals on average per game to them. The average height of the team is 198.6 cm, the average age is 28.6 years.
The center of “MINSK” Vadzim Stubeda: “We are facing the final match of the first stage of the regular season of the VTB United League. Of course, I want to go to the next stage with another victory. We have come a long way from Krasnodar, but we have a day ahead to prepare. The team's attitude is combative. We will fight to the end.”
The opponent 's pre-match roster
“Samara" (Samara)
Guards:
7. KC Rivers (01.03.1987, 196 cm, USA),
9. Marcos Knight (09/24/1989, 188 cm, USA),
10. Anton Kardanakhishvili (03/19/2002, 195 cm, Russia),
25. Jordan Theodore (11.12.1989, 183 cm, USA),
29. Vladimir Pichkurov (09.01.1990, 198 cm, Russia),
32. Yury Umrikhin (28.06.1999, 190 cm, Russia).
Forwards:
1. James Ennis (01.07.1990, 198 cm, USA),
11. Maksim Barashkov (10.07.1998, 202 cm, Russia),
23. Malcolm Thomas (08.11.1988, 206 cm, USA),
30. Danila Chikarev (18.11.2001, 198 cm, Russia),
45. Maksim Sheleketo (04.01.1987, 205 cm, Russia).
Centers:
0. Ivan Lazarev (31.01.1991, 210 cm, Russia),
3. Nikita Zverev (06.04.1994, 210 cm, Russia),
8. Vladimir Ivlev (02/28/1990, 207 cm, Russia).
The head coach is Sergey Bazarevich (Russia).
The broadcast of the game will be available on the VTB United League website, Belarus 5 TV channel and Belarus 5 Internet.