Avtodor beat MINSK in the VTB League regular game on the road – 97:72 (26:14, 26:17, 22:21, 23:20).
The best scorers
MINSK: Uladislau Bliznyuk (25+8 assists), Zach Smith (20+13 rebounds), Kirill Sytnik (13)
Avtodor: Ryan Boatwright (18 + 7 assists), Nikita Mikhailovskii (13 + 6 rebounds + 6 assists), Brandon Garrett (13 + 6 rebounds), Evgeny Minchenko (10 + 12 rebounds), Nikola Rebic (9 + 5 assists)
Game process
MINSK started the season with three major losses. Avtodor won the first game of the season, but then suffered two failures in a row.
From the very first minutes, the Saratov team started to play with a high pace, combining fastbreaks with three-pointers. The Minsk team tried to catch the rhythm, but in the middle of the quarter, the Volga team with the help of Nikita Mikhailovskii and Ryan Boatright, had an 11-0 run. Avtodor was not going to stop there. The Russian team offense worked with maximum efficiency and the key player was Boatwright. The American guard made 6 of 8 from the game, scoring 18 points and 4 assists by the halftime. Avtodor players scored 8 out of 13 3-pointers, after two quarters the Saratov team led 52:31.
After the halftime, Avtodor clearly played according to the score, keeping MINSK at a comfortable distance. The Saratov club brought the game to a confident win, without giving fans any reason to worry. Avtodor ended the losses series, the Belarusian team are still without wins in the new season.
Hero
Ryan Boatwright. In just 13 minutes in the first half, the American made stats that would look decent at the end of the whole game (18 +4). Boatwright added 18 points, 7 assists and 2 steals.
Numbers
4 blocks were made by Evgeny Minchenko. The Saratov team bigman continues to lead in blocks per game.
What’s next
MINSK: home game versus Enisey on October 24
Avtodor: home game against CSKA on October 23
