UNICS Russia defeated Tsmoki-Minsk Belarus at home, 87-62 (25-4, 28-21, 20-16, 14-21).
Top Scorers
UNICS: Jamar Smith (12), Stephane Lasme (11 + 6 reb + 3 stl), Vladislav Trushkin (11)
Tsmoki-Minsk: Devon Saddler (11), Filip Adamovic (11)
Story
UNICS opened the game on a devastating 25-4 run and never looked back, running up a 34-point lead late in the 3rd quarter before easing up a bit in the final period.
The home team was unconscious from beyond the arc, knocking down 14 of 21 attempts with seven different players connecting beyond the perimeter.
Dimitris Priftis was able to empty his bench early in the contest, with no one playing more than 20 minutes and eight players scoring seven or more points.
Tsmoki-Minsk never recovered from the opening blow. The visitors turned the ball over 18 times and only attempted five free throws in the defeat. Filip Adamovic led Tsmoki with 11 points on 3-4 shooting from downtown.
The win puts UNICS into 1st place with a 12-1 record with four teams (UNICS, Loko, CSKA, Zenit) separated by only one game at the top of the standings.
Tsmoki into a three-way tie for 7th place with PARMA and Kalev. The bottom seven teams in the League are also only separated by one game with two postseason spots up for grabs.
Stat
5 – Aliaksandr Kudrautsau was the only player on Tsmoki’s roster to attempt a free throw, knocking down four of his five attempts.
Alley-Oop
Даже крупно уступая в счете, @TsmokiMinsk не забывают играть красиво✨
Even losing a lot, @TsmokiMinsk shows beautiful performance✨ pic.twitter.com/a6NdkpJBGS
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) February 4, 2018
Quotes
UNICS head coach Dimitris Priftis:
– This is the part of the season when you need to stay fresh and win all of your games. Congratulations to the players. They had the right approach to the game, especially in the first half and for most of the game. Of course, we had a few breakdowns, but that’s normal when you’re up by so much from the very beginning.
Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Alexander Krutikov:
– The first thing I want to say is that we won the rebounding battle. That’s great. Very encouraging. We committed 18 turnovers. In our last road game, we had 24 against VEF. That’s also an improvement. I want to congratulate the home team. They started extremely well: 25-4, 53-25. In principle, there wasn’t much reason to play the second half. What else is there to say?! We were decent at the free-throw line: Of the five we were given, we made four. Everything else was very poor.
Up Next
UNICS: February 12 away vs. Kalev
Tsmoki-Minsk: February 11 home vs. CSKA
Images of the Game
