UNICS defeated MBA-MAI on the road – 90:84 (26:29, 17:14, 19:25, 28:16).
Game progress
The first quarter delighted fans with high-scoring basketball. Two teams scored 55 points combined. Maksim Barashkov, Sergey Balashov and Vladislav Trushkin scored 29 points and secured MBA-MAI lead – 29:26.
In the second quarter, the opponents slowed down. But the Moscow team increased the lead even more with aggressive play. Evgeny Voronov helped to make the advantage double digits – 31:21. But the end of the quarter belonged to the guests. UNICS completely erased the deficit during in 4 minutes. As a result, the score was tied by halftime – 43:43.
Key moment
After the halftime, the Moscow team managed to lead for a long time with toughness. But in the final minutes, the individual skill of the Kazan team players allowed to turn the game around.
Dmitry Kulagin’s steal proved to be the key. UNICS guard turn the ball over from Pavel Savkov and gave his team a 5-point lead with 45 seconds left – 87:82. It was the last made shot of the game.
In the remaining time, the teams exchanged fouls and free throws, but the guests secured the score.
X-factor
Dmitry Kulagin had his best game of the season. UNICS guard had 35 eff. points. Kulagin also scored 27 points and repeated VTB League career-high.
Facts
The Moscow team has never defeated UNICS in its history. For MBA-MAI, today’s loss was their 12th.
MBA-MAI set a new season-high 35 fouls.
Velimir Perasovic surpassed Rimas Kurtinaitis in number of games played and equaled him in number of wins with one team. The Croatian specialist has 144 wins in 196 games with UNICS.
Leaders
MBA-MAI: Pavel Savkov (15), Maksim Barashkov (13), Sergey Balashov (11)
UNICS: Dmitry Kulagin (27), Jalen Reynolds (16), Dyshawn Pierre (14 + 15 rebounds), Denis Zakharov (12), Alexey Shved (11 + 5 assists)
What’s next
MBA-MAI: January 4 at home versus Uralmash
UNICS: December 28 on the road against Uralmash.
