2020-21Top 16Round 6
Herbalife Gran Canaria 96
UNICS Kazan 90
March 10, 2021 CET: 21:00
Local time: 20:00 GRAN CANARIA ARENA

Gran Canaria beats UNICS, qualifies

Herbalife Gran Canaria survived yet another do-or-die situation by downing UNICS Kazan 96-90 at home on Wednesday to clinch a spot in the EuroCup Quarterfinals. After a 0-3 start in Top 16 Group H, Gran Canaria finished second with a 3-3 record due to its tie-break advantage against MoraBanc Andorra. UNICS dropped to 5-1. A.J. Slaughter led the winners with 24 points, Matt Costello and John Shurna each added 14 and Aleksander Balcerowski and Javier Beiran had 11 apiece for Gran Canaria. Jamar Smith led UNICS with a career-high 32 points. Jordan Morgan had 20 and 10 rebounds, while John Brown got 10 points for the visitors. Gran Canaria hit 5 three-point shots in the first quarter to take a 31-17 lead after 10 minutes. Gran Canaria boosted its margin to 57-40 at halftime and then again to 78-58 at the end of the third quarter and held on the rest of the way.

Slaughter got Gran Canaria going with a layup-plus-foul and a three-pointer in a 10-2 opening run in which Shurna added consecutive layups. Morgan scored twice around the basket and got help from Okaro White to bring UNICS within 12-11. Tomas Dimsa stepped up with a coast-to-coast layup and a triple, Slaughter and Costello each struck from beyond the arc and Balcerowski soon added a three-point play to boost the hosts' lead to 28-16. Costello sank another three-pointer that gave Gran Canaria a 31-17 lead after 10 minutes. Sean Kilpatrick hit a jumper in transition early in the second quarter. Isaiah Canaan followed a driving layup with a triple and Georgy Zhbanov scored off a steal, but Dimsa and an unstoppable Balcerowski kept Gran Canaria way ahead, 43-26. Jordan Theodore and John Holland buried a three-pointer apiece before Slaughter scored off an inbounds pass and Shurna kept the hosts fully in charge, 50-34. Morgan dunked with authority and added a tip-in but Dimsa and Jean Montero restored a 57-40 Gran Canaria lead at halftime.

Costello hit a jump hook soon after the break. Beiran scored again and Kilpatrick added a triple that broke the game open, 64-40. Smith answered from downtown and followed Brown's put-back layup with a driving basket that gave UNICS hope at 67-47. Beiran banked in a jump hook and Slaughter struck from beyond the arc for a 72-49 score. Brown and Smith kept pacing the visitors, but UNICS only managed to trade baskets, staying within 78-58 after 30 minutes. Balcerowski scored down low early in the fourth quarter. Morgan and Evgeny Kolesnikov brought the guests within 80-65 with 8 minutes to go. Shurna and Dmitrii Uzinskii traded three-pointers and then Theodore got UNICS within 83-71. Costello followed a dunk with a three-pointer to seal the outcome, 89-73, as UNICS could not complete its comeback in the final 3 minutes.

Pivotal performer

A.J. Slaughter stepped up early in the game, getting 6 points in an opening 10-2 run, and kept going until the final buzzer. He finished the game with 24 points on 4-of-9 three-point shooting plus 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block and 5 fouls drawn for a PIR of 22.

Game-changing moment

Gran Canaria led 55-40 near halftime. That's when Jean Montero scored around the basket, igniting a 9-0 run that bridged the halves. Matt Costello hit a jump hook, Javier Beiran added a fast break layup and Sean Kilpatrick buried a triple for a 64-40 Gran Canaria lead, enough to dominate the game and get an important victory.

Stellar stat

Gran Canaria had better shooting percentages in the first half, which decided the game. Gran Canaria (65.0% 2FG, 42.9% 3FG, 92.9% FT) shot the ball much better than UNICS (55.0% 2FG, 27.3% 3FG, 81.8% FT) and had 14 assists to just 4 turnovers. UNICS had 7 assists and just as many turnovers before the break.

Did you know?

Gran Canaria has made it to the EuroCup Quarterfinals for the fifth time in club history. It previously reached the quarterfinals in four consecutive years, from 2015 to 2018. It reached the EuroCup Finals in 2015 where it lost against Khimki Moscow Region.

Next game

Both teams return to 7DAYS EuroCup action in Game 1 of the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals, set to start on Tuesday, March 23. Gran Canaria visits Boulogne Metropolitans 92 and UNICS hosts Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar.

AJ Slaughter - Herbalife Gran Canaria (photo Fernando Robledano - Gran Canaria) - EC20
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: MOGULKOC, EMIN; JURAS, MARKO; BARTH, BENJAMIN
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Herbalife Gran Canaria31262118
UNICS Kazan17231832
End of Quarter1234
Herbalife Gran Canaria31577896
UNICS Kazan17405890
Herbalife Gran Canaria
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 KILPATRICK, SEAN 22:00 7 2/2 1/3     1 1 4 1 2     4 4 9
2 BALCEROWSKI, ALEKSANDER 15:41 11 5/6   1/1 2 4 6           3 2 15
3 MONTERO, JEAN 6:04 4 1/1   2/2       1   1     1 1 4
8 SLAUGHTER, AJ 33:05 24 3/6 4/9 6/7   2 2 5   3 1   3 5 22
9 DIMSA, TOMAS 26:50 9 2/5 1/5 2/2       4   1     1 3 7
14 SHURNA, JOHN 23:58 14 2/4 2/5 4/8 1 1 2 1 2 1 1   2 4 12
17 SANTANA, FABIO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 DIOP, KHALIFA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
24 COSTELLO, MATTHEW 21:12 14 2/2 3/3 1/4   3 3 4 1 1 2   4 2 18
30 LOPEZ, RUBEN 0:06                              
33 BEIRAN, JAVIER 32:38 11 4/6 1/3   2 2 4 1 2 3     3 1 9
41 STEVIC, OLIVER 18:26 2 1/1     1 5 6 2         1 2 11
Team           4 1 5     1         4
Totals 200:00 96 22/33 12/28 16/24 10 19 29 22 6 13 4 0 22 24 111
        66.7% 42.9% 66.7%
Head coach: FISAC, PORFI
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
UNICS Kazan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 BROWN, JOHN 29:58 10 4/10   2/2 5 1 6 1 1 1   1 2 3 11
3 CANAAN, ISAIAH 14:56 5 1/2 1/4         1   3     5 1 -5
6 ZHBANOV, GEORGY 2:04 2 1/1             1           3
9 WHITE, OKARO 24:50 3 1/3 0/2 1/2 2 2 4 1       2 4 4 1
12 KLIMENKO, ARTEM 0:55                              
13 UZINSKII, DMITRII 18:00 3   1/2     2 2               4
15 SMITH, JAMAR 26:04 32 7/8 3/9 9/10   3 3 1 1 3     3 5 28
19 MORGAN, JORDAN 24:11 20 7/9   6/7 4 6 10           3 5 29
23 HOLLAND, JOHN 18:38 6 1/1 1/3 1/1           3     1 2 2
25 THEODORE, JORDAN 28:40 7 2/7 1/2   1 1 2 6 3 2   1 4 2 7
42 KOLESNIKOV, EVGENY 11:44 2 1/1 0/1     1 1   1       2   1
Team             4 4     2         2
Totals 200:00 90 25/42 7/23 19/22 12 20 32 10 7 14 0 4 24 22 83
        59.5% 30.4% 86.4%
Head coach: PRIFTIS, DIMITRIS

Head Coaches

FISAC, PORFI
Herbalife Gran Canaria
"We made a great performance today. We had trouble stopping the ball in the last quarter, but we were playing better than during the game. We put a lot of effort and had a lot of energy, all game long. We had difficulties stopping them in the last quarter and that allowed them to return to the game, but I believe we have to be very proud of the work we did because we lost two critical players in the last 15 days, especially from a physical standpoint for this kind of game, Andrew Albicy and Stan Okoye, but the team took a very important step forward and the homegrown players are helping us more and more every day. I believe we played top-level offense in the opening three quarters, sharing the ball and finding the open player. We helped each other out, which is something we always look for and want to do. You never know if shots will go in or not, but tonight, we hit them. We had a point guard [Slaughter] playing a lot of minutes in recent games. His attitude is extraordinary, an amazing worker and a great scorer, but A.J. paid a price for that and we tried to protect him as much as we could. We also have to understand the kind of team we were facing, a team that had won 15 games in a row, that was undefeated in the Top 16 and playing for high goals, because the home-court advantage is critical for those teams that aspire to play the finals. I am an end-of-the-road person and my final grades have to come in May. During the road, what I try to do is listen, let people talk and work with the same idea. I won't change the way that I am and am quite self-critical when I have to grade myself."
PRIFTIS, DIMITRIS
UNICS Kazan
"First of all, congratulations to Gran Canaria. They had a very strong game, very determined from the very first possession of the game. We had a very bad attitude in the first half, not enough energy, but above all, we were not concentrated. I am very disappointed with our attitude and the way that we played. We didn't fight in the first half and then it was very late and Gran Canaria built a big, extended lead and it was very difficult for us to catch them. Although we tried, we didn't have enough time in the end, because at least in the end, we fought and had some energy and hit some shots. Okay, we keep on now. Congratulations again to Gran Canaria and we go to the next stage of the EuroCup."

Players

SLAUGHTER, AJ
Herbalife Gran Canaria
"I am exhausted! It was a tough game for us. Everybody knows we are missing two key players, but we fought tonight. We had a 0-3 start in the EuroCup [Top 16] and always believed we could get to this moment and win this game to get us back to the playoffs."