UNICS beat Zielona Gora and make semi-finals

UNICS beat Zielona Gora and make semi-finals

UNICS beat Zielona Gora on the road in quarterfinals game 2 and make semi-finals – 90:79 (24:25, 15:12, 27:19, 24:23).

Top scorers
Zielona Gora: Kris Richard (20 + 7 rebounds + 6 assists), Skyler Bowlin (15), David Brembly (12), Rolands Freimanis (10), Geoffrey Groselle (4 + 10 rebounds).
UNICS: Jamar Smith (18 + 5 assists), John Holland (17), Okaro White (15 + 10 rebounds), Nate Wolters (12 + 7 assists).

Story
The visitors took the lead in the opening frame, but the Poles seized momentum quickly. Their biggest success was imposing a comfortable style of play on their opponent. With the threes Zielona Gora’s chances of success increased significantly. That was confirmed in the first 10 minutes.

The home team converted 5 of 7 three-point shots, with Kris Richard scoring several. Thanks to it Zan Tabak’s roster for the first time in the series scored more than 20 points in one quarter and won the starting quarter – 25:24.

UNICS’s defense adapted midway through the second quarter. They became more aggressive on the perimeter and shut down their opponent’s shooters. In six minutes, the Poles shot just once from the field. The visitors’ offense also struggled. Still, thanks to their solid defense, the Russians regained the lead at halftime – 39-37.

At the beginning of the third quarter, Okaro White, John Holland and John Brown combined seven points, giving UNICS its first double-digit lead of the game, 47-37. Zielona Gora was one step away from failure, but at this critical moment, veterans Lukasz Koszarek, Rolands Freimanis and David Brembly, who had joined them, took the lead. Together they scored 17 of the team’s 19 points in one quarter, and the Polish club kept their chances to stay alive before the final 10 minutes, 56-66.

Key moment
There was no intrigue in the game. The visitors confidently controlled the game, never letting their opponent run or catch their shots. In addition, Kazan’s international players Jamar Smith, John Holland and Okaro White were very confident on offense. UNICS maintained a double-digit lead throughout the final quarter and pulled out another convincing win. The Russian club advanced to the VTB League semifinals, where their opponent will be Lokomotiv-Kuban of Krasnodar.

Hero
Okaro White has been the hero of this series. In the first meeting between the teams, the forward renewed his personal records for efficiency and performance. In the same game the American scored double-double (15 points and 10 rebounds) and became the best in +/- (+22).

Stat
10 of 10 – for the fifth time this season, one team has hit all its free throws in a game. It’s the second time UNICS has met that stat. In their December game against Tsmoki-Minsk, Kazan also hit 10 of their 10 free throws from the line.

Comments

Zielona Gora head coach Zan Tabak: 

– We made history: For the first time a Polish team played in the playoffs of the VTB United League. Previously four teams from Poland participated in the tournament and none of them made it. We played 73 games a season – with the roster we had it was really hard. Despite the loss of players in the middle of the season it was a good season for the club, for me personally, for the players and for the whole Polish basketball.

UNICS head coach Dimitrios Priftis: 

– First of all I want to say that Zielona Goura had a great season, but it’s a completely different team now. They lost two key players. Today we started the game without the energy and allowed our opponent to score too many points in the first quarter, but then we corrected ourselves. It was a good game and now we are going to the next step of the playoffs.

Photo 14/05/2021 Zielona Gora-UNICS 79:90