UNICS — CSKA, 26 December 2020

UNICS Kazan vs. CSKA: 76-83 (+7)

UNICS: Canaan (36), Wolters (17 + 5 rb + 4 as + 2 st), White (2 + 4 rb + 5 pf), Morgan (3 + 5 pf), Holland (7) – start; Brown (4 + 3 rb + 3 st + 5 pf), Antipov (5 + 4 pf), Kuleshov (DNP), Gbanov (0), Sergeyev (2), Uzinskiy (2 bs), Razumov (0)…
CSKA: James (22 + 4 rb + 2 as + 3 to), Hilliard (16 + 4 rb + 2 as), Shengelia (18 + 12 rb + 4 pf), Milutinov (6 + 8 rb), Kurbanov (7 + 5 rb) – start; Khomenko (5 + 2 as), Ukhov (0), Hackett (7 + 4 pf), Antonov (0), Voigtmann (2 + 3 to), Lopatin (0), Shashkov (DNP)…

Congrats to the team for the effort, it was an open fight during the whole game, especially in the first half. In the halftime we spoke about how we have to change the attitude, put more effort in the second half. But we have to admit that different teams have different load, we have too many games now. Plus we lack many players – Will Clyburn, Joel Bolomboy, Janis Strelnieks. Hackett played after a long absence. With all due respect to UNICS, our roster and goals make us play better. I’m really satisfied with today’s performance of bench players, especially Khomenko. He drove the team with his energy. He’s a living example for young players of how to come to the game and show oneself. Simon [Antonov] was also important with his knowledge of the game. Obviously, we put an emphasis to our post game. We had trouble stopping Canaan but we played good defense on other players. We managed to change our mentality, we went up 8-10 points and finished the game smoothly.