We lose the board and concede to Lokomotiv in the remake of the final

Main team news

26.03.2024

In the battle of last year's finalists, UNICS lost to Lokomotiv Kuban with a score of 82:90, but retained the first place in the VTB United League.

Thanks to the victory over the current champion, the Railwaymen bypassed Zenit and returned to the third place in the regular season table.

By the middle of the 2nd quarter, Loko managed to achieve a 12-point lead (33:21). The guests made numerous attempts to return to the game and heroically took the lead at the start of the 4th ten-minute period – 72:69 after the three-point from Green. The decisive spurt of the Railwaymen was 13:2 in the final period, which returned the Southerners a double–digit advantage - 87:76 5:47 before the final siren. The victory for the Cubans was largely ensured by their superiority under the boards (33 against 24 in rebounds) and a high percentage of defects for the Kazan team – 18 losses against 8 for the hosts.

Erick GREEN and Jalen REYNOLDS became the most productive members of UNICS, who scored more than half of the team's points in total – 43 out of 82. Neno DIMITRIJEVIC scored a double-double of 12 points with 12 rebounds. Louis LABEYRIE added 6 rebounds to 12 points.

Lokomotiv-Kuban (Krasnodar) – UNICS (Kazan) – 90:82 (25:17, 23:24, 19:28, 23:13).
Lokomotiv Kuban: Akun-Purcell (25 + 5 rebounds + 6 steals + 4 assists), Elatontsev (12 + 7 rebounds + 3 assists), Ndur (10 + 4 rebounds), Barford (10 + 3 assists).
UNICS: Green (24 + 2 rebounds), Reynolds (19 + 3 rebounds), Dimitrijevic (12 + 12 assists + 2 rebounds), Labeyrie (12+6 rebounds).

Velimir Perasovic's team will play its next match in Kazan on Saturday, March 30, against Parma.

POST-MATCH COMMENTS:

Velimir PERASOVIC, BC UNICS head coach:

«Congratulations to Lokomotiv. They deserved to win from the first seconds, playing hard and with great energy. However, during the match, UNICS managed to answer. But in the end we didn't have enough physical strength to save the game. Obviously, thanks to their athleticism, the opponent surpassed us under the board. In addition, they often stole balls, and we made a lot of losses, after which Loko scored easy points. These are the key aspects of our defeat.

I would like to note that UNICS plays without important injured basketball players. In addition, Marcos Knight was injured in the match. Today we found ourselves in a situation where we could not be competitive. But we will do our best to continue fighting».

Neno DIMITRIJEVIC, BC UNICS guard:

«When we went to Krasnodar, we expected a difficult game. There are no others here. We were up against a serious team that demonstrated physical strength today and significantly surpassed us under the boards. This is a tough defeat. But we will make the necessary conclusions and focus on the next match».