UNICS Kazan defeated Avtodor Saratov on the road, 84-77 (22-25, 25-17, 19-17, 18-18).
Top Scorers
Avtodor: Vince Hunter (20+9 reb), Michael Carrera (14+8 reb), Evgeny Kolesnikov (13)
UNICS: Keith Langford (20), Quino Colom (13+5 reb+7 ast), Artsiom Parakhouski (11+5 reb)
Turning Point
After trailing 25-22 at the end of the 1st quarter, Kazan rebounded to go up seven entering the 4th. Avtodor kept it close down the stretch, but the team struggled to shoot the ball from the perimeter all afternoon (6-23) and couldn’t stop UNICS center Artsiom Parakhouski. He scored Kazan’s final six points to give his team an important road win.
Stat
8 – number of points scored by Artem Klimenko in his first game against his former team.
Quotes
Avtodor head coach Sergei Mokin:
– We played against a very strong opponent with a good selection of players and a good coach. UNICS is a Euroleague team, which is all you need to say. We managed to give Kazan a battle and I’m grateful to the guys. Our opponent’s superior quality had an impact on the final result. We lost the battle, as often is the case. Why didn’t Minnerath play? He’s got a minor injury. We didn’t want to make it worse and let Nick rest.
UNICS head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
– I want to thank the guys and congratulate them on the win. We didn’t have an easy time. On Thursday we played a tough game against Baskonia and didn’t get to our hotel until late last night. We were on the court today by 3 o’clock. We didn’t even have time to analyze Avtodor. We let the players get some rest. I asked the guys before the game to show their character and play tough. The players who didn’t play as much in the Euroleague game gave us energy and freshness. The bench really helped. We were united today.
Highlight
Up Next
Avtodor: January 7 at Parma
UNICS: December 25 at Parma
