2018-19QuarterfinalsGame 3
UNICS Kazan 69
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 65
March 13, 2019 CET: 17:00
Local time: 19:00 BASKET HALL KAZAN

Kaimakoglou leads UNICS to semis

In a do-or-die battle to stay alive in the competition, UNICS Kazan advanced to the 7DAYS EuroCup semifinals by downing Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 69-65 at Basket-Hall Kazan in Game 3 of their best-of-three series on Wednesday. UNICS won the series 2-1 and will face Valencia Basket in the semifinals. Kostas Kaimakoglou led the winners with 14 points off the bench. Errick McCollum added 11 for UNICS. Dmitry Kulagin paced Lokomotiv with 16 points and JaJuan Johnson added 15 and 12 rebounds for the visitors. Lokomotiv led 10-16 after 10 minutes, but an 11-0 run gave UNICS control of the game. The hosts reached halftime with a 32-27. A 0-11 run got Lokomotiv within 47-46 at the end of the third quarter. A layup by Dorell Wright gave the visitors their last lead, 59-60. Jamar Smith and Kaimakoglou hit back-to-back three-pointers and UNICS stayed cold-blooded in the final seconds to snatch the go-ahead win.

Evgeny Kolesnikov got UNICS going with a mid-range jumper and a three-pointer as the hosts' aggressive defense held Lokomotiv scoreless for more than 4 minutes. Lokomotiv tried a smaller lineup with Jamel McLean at center and the visitors started to get to the foul line, but a jumper by Maurice Ndour gave UNICS a 7-3 lead. Dmitry Khvostov followed a triple with a floater. A turnaround jumper by Johnson gave Lokomotiv its first lead, 9-10. Vitaly Fridzon and McLean boosted the margin to 10-16 after 10 minutes. McCollum hit a fallaway jumper early in the second quarter, igniting an 11-0 run in which Kaimakoglou had 9 points - a triple, a couple of layups and a jump hook - for a 21-16 UNICS lead. Wright buried a three-pointer and fed Mateusz Ponitka for a reverse layup that tied it at 23-23. Lokomotiv found its regular go-to guy in Kulagin, who followed a put-back slam with a jumper, which caused UNICS to stop the game at 24-27. Artem Klimenko, Smith and Kaimakoglou fueled an 8-0 run that restored a 32-27 UNICS lead. Raymar Morgan scored down low and Smith added a triple to boost the hosts' margin to 37-29 at halftime. UNICS's frontcourt fond itself in severe foul trouble - Ndour 4 fouls, Melvin Ejim and Morgan 3 each - and Lokomotiv took full advantage of it. Johnson and Kulagin combined for all the points in an 0-11 run that gave the visitors a 37-40 edge. Morgan rescued UNICS with a layup, but Kulagin bettered it with a triple and a tip-in by Johnson made it 40-45. Anton Ponkrashov downed a corner three-pointer and got help from McCollum to restore a 47-46 UNICS edge after 30 minutes. Ponkrashov downed a jumper early in the fourth quarter and an alley-oop dunk by Klimenko forced the Lokomotiv to call timeout at 51-46. McLean and Khvostov scored in penetration, but a jumper by Morgan gave UNICS a 53-50 edge. McLean and Wright tried to change things for Lokomotiv, but Ponkrashov and McCollum kept UNICS ahead, 57-54, with over 3 minutes left. Ponitka sank a floater, Johnson added an alley-oop slam and a layup by Wright gave Lokomotiv a 59-60 lead in the next-to-last minute. Smith struck from downtown and a wild turnaround jumper by Johnson tied it at 62-62 with 52.7 seconds left. After Kaimakoglou answered from downtown, Kulagin and Henry traded free throws and Khvostov committed a critical turnover. McCollum and Henry sealed the outcome from the foul line.

Pivotal performer

Kostas Kaimakoglou averaged 3.1 points before this game, but made the difference in the most critical moment. He finished Game 3 with 14 points on 4-of-4 two-point shooting and 2-of-3 on three-pointers. He had 11 points in the second quarter to bring UNICS back to life and hit the go-ahead three-pointer in the final minute.

Game-changing moment

The game went down to the final seconds; JaJuan Johnson tied the game with a jumper at 62-62, but Kostas Kaimakoglou buried a three-pointer from the top of the key and Dmitry Khvostov made a critical turnover that allowed Errick McCollum to go to the foul line. McCollum split free throws, but that four-point lead was enough for UNICS to stay ahead for good.

Stellar stat

In a very balanced game, shooting percentages made the difference. Lokomotiv hit just 38.1% shots inside the arc (16 of 42) and 23.5% from downtown (4 of- 7). UNICS only did a bit better, but enough to win the game: 15 of 37 (40.5%) inside the arc and 7 of 17 (41.2%) from three-point range

Did you notice?

UNICS advanced to the EuroCup Semifinals for the fifth time in club history. It previously made it in 2007, 2011, 2014 and 2015. So far, UNICS is 2-2 in the semifinals. It beat Cedevita Zagreb in 2011 and Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade in 2014 and lost to Real Madrid in 2007 and Herbalife Gran Canaria in 2015.

Next game

UNICS will visit Valencia Basket in Game 1 of the semifinals on Tuesday, March 19. Lokomotiv has been eliminated from the competition.

Kostas Kaimakoglou - UNICS Kazan (photo UNICS) - EC18
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: JAVOR, DAMIR; BALAK, AMIT; ISGUDER, SINAN
Attendance: 3581
By Quarter1234
UNICS Kazan10271022
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar16131719
End of Quarter1234
UNICS Kazan10374769
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar16294665
UNICS Kazan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 MORGAN, RAYMAR 23:22 7 3/8   1/2 1 3 4 1   2     4 2 2
3 EJIM, MELVIN 11:13     0/1     2 2 1   1 1   4   -2
4 LOCKETT, TRENT 9:03   0/2 0/1     1 1   1 1       1 -1
5 NDOUR, MAURICE 7:47 4 2/3     1 1 2     1 1   4 1 2
6 MCCOLLUM, ERRICK 25:12 11 2/7 0/1 7/9   5 5 1 1 2 1 1 3 8 13
7 PONKRASHOV, ANTON 14:50 7 2/3 1/2 0/2 2 2 4 4         1 2 12
12 KLIMENKO, ARTEM 12:13 6 1/1   4/6   3 3 1   2     4 5 7
15 SMITH, JAMAR 29:41 9   3/6     3 3 4 1       1 1 14
42 KOLESNIKOV, EVGENY 10:09 5 1/2 1/3     1 1   1 1   1 3   -1
45 SHELEKETO, MAKSIM DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
49 HENRY, PIERRIA 30:18 6 0/7   6/8   2 2 5 3 2   1 1 6 9
88 KAIMAKOGLOU, KOSTAS 26:12 14 4/4 2/3 0/1   4 4 1 1     1 4 1 14
Team           2 3 5               5
Totals 200:00 69 15/37 7/17 18/28 6 30 36 18 8 12 3 4 29 27 74
        40.5% 41.2% 64.3%
Head coach: PRIFTIS, DIMITRIS
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
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MCLEAN, JAMEL 22:40 9 2/7   5/8 1 4 5 1 1 1   1 2 6 10
3 WRIGHT, DORELL 19:28 9 1/2 1/3 4/5       2 1   1   3 2 8
5 LACEY, TREVOR 11:12   0/1 0/1         1         2 1 -2
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 21:09 4 1/3 0/3 2/2   3 3 1 1 1     3 3 3
8 APIC, DRAGAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 IVLEV, VLADIMIR 3:56           1 1           1    
11 ILNITSKIY, STANISLAV 0:21                              
13 KHVOSTOV, DMITRY 32:59 7 2/6 1/4   1 2 3 4 1 2     4 1 3
20 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 21:46 4 2/4 0/1   1 2 3 2   1     4 1 2
22 KULAGIN, DMITRY 32:33 16 3/9 2/5 4/7 1 4 5 1   1 2 2 4 5 10
25 JOHNSON, JAJUAN 25:21 15 5/10   5/5 3 9 12     1 1   2 7 27
93 FALL, MOUSTAPHA 8:35 1     1/2   2 2     2     2 3 1
Team           4 3 7     2         5
Totals 200:00 65 16/42 4/17 21/29 11 30 41 12 4 11 4 3 27 29 67
        38.1% 23.5% 72.4%
Head coach: JOVANOVIC, VLADA

Head Coaches

PRIFTIS, DIMITRIS
UNICS Kazan

"First of all, congratulations to the players and to the staff, too, as they worked hard around the team. Making it to the EuroCup Semifinals is a good achievement. Today, the game was very tough, there was a lot of stress, it was almost like Game 2. In the end, we found the way to win the game. We made one very critical shot in the end, in a very critical moment - a three-pointer by Jamar [Smith]. I would also like to mention the contributions of Ponkrashov, Kaimakoglou and Artem Klimenko - they really contributed for this win. We proceed - thank God, we continue. Kostas [Kaimakoglou] contributed today and play well. It is good to have a couple of players who will step up when the team is struggling. Kostas has experience and I would say the same about Ponkrashov; he was very creative today. He passed the ball and created from the low post. I am glad for both. Also, when we had foul problems, Klimenko was very effective."

"It was a toxic game, very tough for both teams. I think we won on details; some defenses in the last part of the game and some shots. We kept our composure in the end and continue our trip in the EuroCup. We know Valencia is one of the favorite teams in the EuroCup. We know we have a disadvantage, regarding the home court and know it is going to be tough. Valencia is a very demanding team and will be a difficult opponent."

JOVANOVIC, VLADA
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
"All games have been different since the beginning of the series - first, second and third. Tonight, 2 three-point shots decided the game, first by Jamar Smith and second by Kaimakoglou. We didn't play such good defense during the whole game, especially in the end. We were without focus and forgot what we talked about in this [pre-game] meeting. That was our main problem, of course. We had problems with our rotation, but this is not a main problem. Congratulations to UNICS, congratulations to my players and I hope we can play much better games in the VTB League."

Players

MCCOLLUM, ERRICK
UNICS Kazan
"I think we just played good defense. We were aggressive and made them uncomfortable. I think we just made them take tough shots. That was the difference in the game. Offensively, we were not that good, but we were good enough to get the win. We are always confident; we are not undefeated at home for no reason. I think we had the best overall record in the EuroCup before we started the playoffs; we were 14-2. We have good reasons to be confident. We are going to continue with that and get ready for Valencia and try to continue the season."
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