The fourth victory in a row and the first «hundred» of the season!

Main team news

21.12.2023

In the battle of the champions of Russia and Belarus, the forces were not equal: UNICS defeated Minsk at home with a score of 101:81, winning its 4th victory in a row in the regular season. Kazan, who played with the widest possible rotation, conquered the 100 points mark for the first time in the season and firmly secured 2nd place in the VTB United League table.

The most productive in the home team were Erick GREEN and Marcos KNIGHT, who scored 42 points for two. Jalen REYNOLDS added 16 more points. Minsk basketball players lost balls twice as often (11 against 5 on unforced errors), UNICS showed 62% of field goals – 37/60.

VTB United League. Regular season.
UNICS (Kazan, Russia) – Minsk (Belarus) – 101:81 (21:15, 30:18, 19:17).
UNICS: Green (22), Knight (20 + 3 rebounds + 3 assists), Reynolds (16 + 3 rebounds), Dimitrijevic (11 + 5 assists), Bako (8 + 6 rebounds), Zaitcev (8 + 4 rebounds + 3 assists), Labeyrie (7 + 6 rebounds).
Minsk: Ogungbemi-Jackson (24 + 4 assists + 3 rebounds), Motovilov (16 + 7 assists), Kasko (12 + 3 rebounds).

POST-MATCH COMMENTS:

Velimir PERASOVIC, BC UNICS head coach:

«First of all, congratulations to my players. It's always important to win. We started the match with concentration and good defense. In the first half, we had two unsuccessful moments when the opponent got close to us in the score. But the rest of the time we dominated and already before the break we achieved a comfortable adtantage, which allowed us to approach the final part of the match without any problems. Of course, in some aspects of the game today we weren't that good. In particular, we couldn't hold back some of Minsk's high-speed basketball players. To be fair, it's not easy to play every 3 days. I hope we will be better in these components in the next matches».

Alexander STULENKOV, BC UNICS forward:

«Congratulations to the UNICS fans on the victory! At first, the match was not easy. We played well in the first five minutes, but then we made some small mistakes. Today, not everything turned out to be done. We tried to do our best in defense and rebounding. We wanted to win, and we managed to present a gift to our fans. On Sunday, we will have a match with Samara, for which we plan to prepare seriously. We remember well our away defeat against them, so it is important to rehabilitate ourselves and show that we are stronger».

Alexey SUKHOVETSKY, BC Minsk acting head coach:

«Today we were preparing for an aggressive game. This is exactly the style that UNICS preaches. They put pressure on both defense and rebounding. We had to find extra strength to stay in the game. I think the guys did a lot of things. There was a lack of experience somewhere, they got unnecessary fouls. On the positive side, I note that we made 11 rebounds on offensive board, that is, we also tried to impose our aggression on the hosts. We actively passed under the board, attacked painr and even made 8 more attacks than UNICS. But the class and size of the opponent allowed them to keep a comfortable distance in the score. Although in the third quarter we tried to catch up. We had a lot of positive moments today. I am grateful to the guys for the efforts they put in on the court».