UNICS beat Tsmoki-Minsk at home – 85:71 (27:15, 18:17, 22:20, 18:19)
Top scorers
UNICS: Valerii Likhodey (19), Errick McCollum (14 + 5 assists), Jamar Smith (13 + 5 assists), Dmitrii Uzinskii (11)
Tsmoki-Minsk: Branko Mirkovic (20), Robert Lowery(16 + 7 assists), Maxim Salash (8 + 7 rebounds).
Story
UNICS approached the game with 9-6 record holding 4th spot. Tsmoki-Minsk were 13th with 4-12 record.
Kazan took the lead quickly with the help of started Valerii Likhodey – 15:6. The hosts kept the rythm and before the second quarter Errick McCollum made his team’s lead double digit (25:13).
Valerii Likhodey’s inspired game (7 for 8 from the field, 16 first half points) gave UNICS the opportunity to decide the game in first 2 quarters of play – 42:21 with 4 minutes left before the big break. However, Minsk were good from the paint (10 for 16 2-pointers) and saved chances via 11:3 run – 45:32 UNICS lead after 20 minutes of game.
Tsmoki-Minsk made 3 threes in a row after switching sides: Robert Lowey, Alexandr Pustohvar and Branko Mirkovic (41:48). UNICS answered with Likhodey and Dmitrii Uzinskii’s accurate long-range shots, and that let Kazan take the control over the game again. During the third the gap reached 17 points (60:43) and before the decisive quarter they were up by 15 (67:52).
Key moment
Tsmoki continued to fight in their signature way and tried to turn the game into clutch, few times reducing the gap to 10 points. However, in the middle of the fourth UNICS made 8:2 run, when Uzinskii hit 2 threes – 79:63 with 3 minutes left on the shotclock. After this, Kazan confidently made it to the win, which is tenth for the team in regular season.
Hero
Valerii Likhodey. The Russian was a starter and set career-high in scoring – 19 points. The forward hit 8 for 10 from the field.
Stat
30 – that’s the points scored by Russian duo Likhodey – Uzinskii. The first one helped Kazan to gain the lead in the beginning of the game, and another one made a few key shots in the fourth. This was a season-high game for both of these forwards.
Comments
UNICS head coach Dimitrios Priftis:
– We played well tonight, were inspired and serious. Yes, of course at some points we slowed down. But almost the whole game we played well. Now we have time for rest and then we will have to prepare for the next game on February 29.
Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Rostislav Vergun:
– We didn’t realize all that we planned to tonight. UNICS are obviously playing good defence. Mostly because of this we couldn’t share the ball properly, couldn’t find the better ways to complete our offensive possessions.
Next
UNICS: February 29 at Kalev
Tsmoki-Minsk: February 29 vs Avtodor
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