2019-20Top 16Round 3
UNICS Kazan 94
Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul 69
January 22, 2020 CET: 17:30
Local time: 19:30 BASKET HALL KAZAN

UNICS blows past Galatasaray

UNICS Kazan registered its largest win of the season, leading from start to finish en route to a 94-69 victory over visiting Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul on Wednesday night. UNICS improved to 2-1, while Galatasaray dropped to 1-2 in Group G of the Top 16. UNICS opened the game with a 15-3 run and then scored 13 consecutive points bridging the first and second quarters and open a 35-11 margin. The hosts never looked back as Galatasaray never came closer than 14 points the rest of the way. Errick McCollum starred against his former team with 17 points, while Jamar Smith had 15 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds. Alex Tyus collected 14 points plus 9 rebounds, Raymar Morgan scored 12, Evgeny Kolesnikov netted 11 and Haukur Palsson finished with 10 points in a victory. Tai Webster scored a career-high 22 points, Zach Auguste finished with 14 points and Alex Poythress amassed 13 points and 14 rebounds, including 7 offensive rebounds, in a losing effort.

Jordan Theodore and McCollum got UNICS going and the hosts held Galatasaray scoreless for more than 3 minutes before Can Korkmaz hit a three-pointer. But Palsson had a pair of triples and Theodore a three-point play to open a 15-3 lead. UNICS did not allow another field goal for more than 5 minutes and Smith's triple made it 20-5 lead. Korkmaz ended Galatasaray's drought and Poythress got the visiting offense going late in the first quarter, but UNICS opened the second with threes from Smith and Kolesnikov, and a three-point play from Morgan in between, to increase the margin to 35-11. Webster opened his tally with a triple to snap a 13-0 run. Poythress and Webster were the only Galatasaray scorers, while Tyus single-handedly kept the margin over 20 points. Webster had a triple and a three-point play to cap a 0-8 run and get within 47-33, but McCollum replied with a triple-plus foul to make it 51-33 at halftime.

Baskets were few and far between early in the third quarter before Valerii Likhodei knocked down a pair of triples and Kolesnikov and McCollum nailed one apiece for a 65-40 lead. The visitors replied with a 0-7 run and with the help of Auguste and Poythress got within 69-52 going into the final quarter. But UNICS opened the fourth quarter with a 10-1 run, which included three-pointers from Kostas Kaimakoglou and Smith, to make it 79-53 and the hosts cruised the rest of the way, leading by as much as 29 points.

UNICS's spurts

The hosts scored the first 6 points of the game and then went on a 9-0 run to open a 15-3 lead. UNICS then scored the last basket of the first, and the first 11 points of the second quarter in a 13-0 run for a 35-11 margin with 7 minutes left in the first half. The final UNICS run came to start the fourth quarter, a 10-1 spurt that made it 79-53 and sealed the deal.

Stat advantage

UNICS knocked down 13 triples, while Galatasaray had just 14 three-point attempts and made only 4 triples. UNICS also finished with 25 assists, while the visitors dished only 12.

Jamar's milestone

Jamar Smith entered the game with 998 career EuroCup points and it was only fitting that his first shot attempt of the game was a three-pointer that got him over 1,000 points, making him 17th player to reach the milestone. Smith also entered the game with ranked third all-time with 196 three-pointers made and with 3 triples in this one is just one shy of reaching 200 for his career.

Galatasaray's scoring struggles

Galatasaray had 33 first-half points, but 23 came from Tai Webster and Alex Poythress who scored every single point of the 21 Galatasaray scored in the second quarter. Aaron Harrison, who scored at least 12 points in every game this season, finished with just 4, all from a free throw line. In addition, Harrison entered the game having made 57 of 63 free throws on the season, only to make just 2 of 6 foul shots in the first quarter.

Rematch

These two teams will meet against next Wednesday in Round 4, when Galatasaray will host UNICS in Istanbul.

Errick McCollum - UNICS Kazan (photo UNICS) - EC19
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: DIFALLAH, MEHDI; KOLJENSIC, MILOS ; JURAS, MARKO
Attendance: 3285
By Quarter1234
UNICS Kazan24271825
Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul11221917
End of Quarter1234
UNICS Kazan24516994
Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul11335269
UNICS Kazan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SERGEEV, PAVEL 4:01   0/1       1 1     1     1   -2
2 MORGAN, RAYMAR 14:48 12 5/5   2/2   1 1           2 3 14
3 MCCOLLUM, ERRICK 30:06 17 3/5 2/6 5/5   4 4 2 1 2     5 7 18
9 TYUS, ALEX 24:27 14 7/10     2 7 9 2 2 1 1 2 4   18
11 LIKHODEI, VALERII 20:39 7 0/1 2/5 1/2 1 2 3 3 2 3     2 2 7
12 KLIMENKO, ARTEM 1:55       0/2 1   1     2     1 1 -3
13 UZINSKII, DMITRII DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15 SMITH, JAMAR 24:25 15 3/6 3/7   2 2 4 8 2 4     2 1 17
24 PALSSON, HAUKUR 24:00 10 2/4 2/3   1   1 1 1       2 2 10
25 THEODORE, JORDAN 20:32 5 1/2 0/2 3/3   2 2 7 1       4 3 11
42 KOLESNIKOV, EVGENY 15:46 11 1/1 3/5   1 3 4           3   10
88 KAIMAKOGLOU, KOSTAS 19:21 3   1/2     2 2 2   1     3   2
Team           1 1 2     1         1
Totals 200:00 94 22/35 13/30 11/14 9 25 34 25 9 15 1 2 29 19 103
        62.9% 43.3% 78.6%
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
Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WEBSTER, TAI 29:01 22 3/10 2/4 10/11   1 1 4 2 7     3 9 18
2 HARRISON, AARON 29:39 4 0/2 0/3 4/8 1 3 4 3 2 3     3 8 6
4 GOKALP, EMIR 13:05 5 1/1 1/2           1       3   2
5 POYTHRESS, ALEX 34:57 13 5/13 0/1 3/3 7 7 14     3 1 1 3 3 15
8 KORKMAZ, CAN 15:13 5 1/2 1/2 0/1   1 1 1           2 6
11 ARAR, EGE 6:12 2 1/2     1   1 1 1           4
12 ERDENIZ, CANER 7:53                         1   -1
22 OLMAZ, AYBERK 17:05   0/1 0/1     4 4               2
30 AUGUSTE, ZACH 22:51 14 5/7   4/10 3 3 6 2   2 1   4 5 14
61 KOKSAL, GOKSENIN 24:04 4 2/4 0/1   1 1 2 1   2     3 2 1
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 69 18/42 4/14 21/33 14 20 34 12 6 17 2 1 20 29 68
        42.9% 28.6% 63.6%
Head coach: ERDOGAN, ERTUGRUL

Head Coaches

PRIFTIS, DIMITRIS
UNICS Kazan
"I want to congratulate the players. We had a very good start, and we had enough seriousness to maintain the difference and to finish the game with the big difference we built during the game. This is very important because we know Istanbul is a very tough place to play with a very noisy atmosphere. And obviously, Galatasaray had some injuries and missing players, because Whittington is an important player for them, so it is important we won and it is important we have a big difference, but we have to expect a very difficult game next week. Palsson is helping us, it is a very good thing he completes possessions with his spot-up shooting, which is something we are missing."
ERDOGAN, ERTUGRUL
Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul
"Congratulations to UNICS. They deserved this win. At this moment in the season, they were much better than us tonight. In the last two rounds we played the game which not how we want. We did not play team basketball in the last two games. We can put a lot of excuses on the table, injuries or sickness, but we have to play much better than this and much better team basketball than what we played tonight. just looking at the number of assists, the ratio is 25-12 and UNICS shared the ball much better than us... If we want to qualify for the next round, we have to change the way of playing basketball, for sure."

Players

MCCOLLUM, ERRICK
UNICS Kazan
"It is a great win. We won by 25, that is very important in the EuroCup for seeding and for placement. But we can't get too happy. We got a big game in the VTB League this week in Zenit, then we turn around and we got to go to Galatasaray. They have a great fan base, we got to be ready, it will be much tougher there than it was here tonight. I have some good friends at Galatasaray, almost like family. The fans embraced me when I played there for two years, we won [the EuroCup]. Even to this day, they are still very kind to me, and there is always a nice place in my heart for Turkey. Any time you want to win, I am a competitor, but I always wished them the best. When they are not playing us I want them to win every game, just not against us."
HARRISON, AARON
Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul
"It was a rough game for us. We couldn't catch a rhythm. They are a good team. We'll practice and to see them in the next game and try to play better."
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