Late run gives UNICS tough road win over Skyliners

UNICS Kazan finished off the regular season with a hard-fought 65-72 victory on the road over Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt. Pierria Henry led the way for UNICS with 14 points, while Jackie Carmichael had 10 points as every UNICS player scored in the win, which improved the team to 9-1 with its sixth straight triumph. Skyliners saw its two-game winning streak snapped to finish at 6-4. Twenty-one-year-old Leon Kratzer picked up 13 points and 10 rebounds; Trae Bell-Haynes had 12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists and Jason Clark added 12 points. Both teams had already clinched their spots in the Top 16 as well as their final places in Group D - UNICS as group winners and Skyliners as third place. That meant both teams rested some of their key players.

UNICS started better with Henry nailing 2 three-pointers in opening a 3-10 advantage. Clark scored Skyliners' first 7 points to make it 7-14. Evgeny Kolesnikov's three gave the visitors a double-digit lead, which increased to 9-20. Garai Zeeb answered with a three for the hosts and 4 points from Bell-Haynes had it down to 16-23 after 10 minutes. Fraport big man Kratzer scored 6 straight points to get the hosts within 22-25. Jamar Smith and Trent Lockett sandwiched threes around a Carmichael three-point play in a 2-11 run to make it 24-36. Skyliners got triples from Clark, Bell-Haynes and Richard Freudenberg, but the home side still trailed 35-43 at the break. UNICS could not get anything going in the third quarter and was held scoreless for the first 7:13 minutes. In the meantime, Kratzer scored 6 points in an 8-0 Skyliners run to even the game at 43-43. Andrey Koshcheev ended the drought and added another basket with Pavel Sergeev's three-pointer making it 48-52 after 30 minutes. Henry continued his superb night with 2 more threes in helping UNICS open a 54-60 lead. Elijah Clarance connected from long range and Bell-Haynes followed to push Skyliners ahead 62-60. The visitors responded with a 2-12 run with veteran Kostas Kaimakoglou scoring 5 points - including the dagger three with 27 seconds to make it 64-72.

Game-changing sequence

Skyliners had just reeled off an 8-0 run to go up 62-60, but UNICS showed its class as Jamar Smith started a 2-12 surge to decide the game.

Pivotal performer

Pierria Henry was Mr. Do-It-All for UNICS with 14 points including 4-of-6 three-point shooting, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Telling numbers

UNICS made 10 of 23 three-pointers (43.5%) and 10 of 11 free throws (90.9%) compared to 8 of 26 threes (30.8%) and 3 of 6 free throws (50.0%) for Skyliners.