Kazan’s UNICS defeated Moscow’s MBA at home, 83–56 (17–12, 22–19, 23–20, 21–5).
Main Story
UNICS entered this game as the League’s highest-scoring team (averaging 102.4 points per game). But in the first half, MBA’s defense prevented the home team’s top scorers from getting into their rhythm. That said, Kazan also played solid defense. As a result, neither team managed to reach the 40-point mark by halftime: 39–31 in favor of UNICS.
The Clutch Moment
During the third quarter, the home team managed to build a double-digit lead—62–51. But the game’s outcome was ultimately decided in the final quarter. Once again, UNICS’s defense played a key role. In the last 8 minutes of the game, the Kazan team did not allow MBA to score a single basket. Meanwhile, UNICS scored 15 consecutive points to secure a convincing victory.
X-Factor
Defense was the key to UNICS’s success in this game. The MBA players scored only 56 points, which is a season-low in the VTB League.
Interesting Facts
UNICS secured its fifth consecutive victory. Along with CSKA, this is the longest winning streak in the current championship.
In this game, UNICS set a new championship record for rebounds—56.
Press Conference
UNICS Head Coach Milan Karakas:
– First of all, I’d like to congratulate my team on the victory. I don’t think the final score reflects just how tough this game was for us. We fought hard for the entire 40 minutes. I’d like to single out our rebounding—both on defense and offense. This was probably our best game of the season in that regard.
I’m not happy that for most of the game we played too individually. I’m sure that for about 25–27 minutes, that was exactly our problem—we weren’t moving the ball enough. But once we started passing it around, we immediately started creating good scoring opportunities and making shots. That’s how we managed to turn the game around.
MBA Head Coach Sergey Voznyuk:
– It was a tough game for us. We didn’t win a single quarter, even though we were down by 11 points going into the final quarter and were generally still in the game. But if you don’t stay on top of things, you can fall behind by 10 points in an instant. UNICS really stepped up in the fourth quarter, building a big lead.
I’ll note that we played poorly in the final quarter. If the team had held its ground the way it did in all the other quarters, I think we could have stayed in it until the end—we would have had a chance. But, unfortunately, what’s done is done. This is undoubtedly a result of their aggression, both on defense and on offense.
Besides, the numbers speak for themselves. We earned only three free throws the entire game, which isn’t enough. We needed to work harder on the boards. But we weren’t able to pull that off in today’s game.
Top Performers
UNICS: Brendan Adams (16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists), David McCormack (15 points, 10 rebounds), C.J. Bryce (12 points, 6 rebounds), Luka Šamanic (9 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists)
MBA: Danil Pevnev (16 points, 7 rebounds), Dmitry Khvostov (13 points)
Up Next
UNICS: November 1, away against Lokomotiv-Kuban
MBA: November 1, away against Enisey.
Highlights:
