Samara beat MINSK on the road — 80:68 (24:13, 14:13, 20:24, 22:18).
The best scorers
MINSK: Uladzislau Bliznyuk (26 + 5 assists), Uladzislau Mikulski (11)
Samara: KC Rivers (18 + 10 rebounds + 5 assists + 4 steals), Marcos Knight (17 + 6 assists), Malcolm Thomas (13), Vladimir Pichkurov (10), James Ennis (9 + 12 rebounds)
Game progress
Both MINSK and Samara have already played six games this season. But if Sergey Bazarevich team is steadily going with a 50% W/L result, then the Minsk team have not won yet.
Until the middle of the first quarter, the game was equal and MINSK led. The situation changed when K.C. Rivers rebounded the ball after his miss and scored second chance points. This was the beginning for Samara 8:0 run, which immediately put the hosts in bad position. By the end of the first quarter, Rivers and Umrikhin duo made SAmara lead double-digit – 24:13.
The second quarter did not change the game too much. MINSK still had to catch up, while the Samara team calmly held a comfortable 14-16 points lead. The Minsk team, as in previous games, scred less: by the halftime the team was able to score only 26 points. However, Samara also had problems, but by the end of the first half they continued with a double-digit lead – 38:26.
And yet, MINSK was not going to give up so easily in front of home stands. With the beginning of the second half, the hosts immediately rushed to score: Aliaksei Trastsinetcki and Maksim Karattsou cought the courage and scored 10 points in a row. MINSK lost by minimum – 43:36. The guests star legionnaires quickly reply: Rivers, James Ennis and Marcos Knight break MINSK defense and restored a major lead. At the end of the third quarter, Uladzislau Bliznyuk scored 10 points in 4 minutes, gave Minsk fans hope for a happy ending of the game — 58:50. But Samara was no longer going to give this win. With leggionaires help, the Volga team regained the lead and Marcos Knight three-pointer set 20 point lead for the first time in the game. Sergey Bazarevich team wins the second game in a row and strengthens the place in the Top-8.
Hero
K.C. Rivers was equally useful on both sides of the court, having an impressive performance: 18 points (4 of 8 3-pointers), 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and a block!
Numbers
Samara 41 rebounds against MINSK 24: complete domination on rebounds gave the guests a lot of second chance points.
What’s next
MINSK: home game versus UNICS on November 7
Samara: home game against MBA on November 6
