2020-21Top 16Round 4
February 03, 2021 CET: 17:00
Local time: 19:00 BASKET HALL KAZAN

UNICS is first into quarterfinals

UNICS Kazan romped past Mornar Bar 86-61 on Wednesday evening at Basket Hall Kazan to storm into the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals. UNICS led from start to finish in grabbing its fourth straight victory to remain atop Group H with a 4-0 record. The hosts jumped out to a 9-0 lead, went ahead by 20 at halftime and the margin peaked at 28 in the fourth quarter. Isaiah Canaan led the UNICS attack with 14 points, Okaro White tallied 12 points, John Holland scored 11 and Jordan Theodore dished 7 assists. Nemanja Gordic paced the Mornar attack with 14 points, Johnny Hamilton posted 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in his debut with the team and Isaiah Whitehead had 11 points and 5 assists before exiting the game late with an apparent shoulder injury.

Holland controlled the opening tip and dunk just mere seconds into the game. Hamilton made his presence felt inside with a block, but Mornar twice missed from close range and then committed consecutive turnovers before a Holland three completed a 9-0 UNICS start. Whitehead broke the ice for the visitors with a three-pointer only to see White match him at the other end. Kenny Gabriel's three trimmed the deficit to 14-10. A three by Canaan and a put-back by Dmitrii Uzinskii helped UNICS take its first double-digit lead, 22-11. Uzinskii added a triple before free throws by Gordic got Mornar within 27-17 after 10 minutes. A Taylor Smith dunk and Whitehead free throws gave Mornar hope, but UNICS responded with the next 7 points, including a Jamar Smith triple. A timeout did little to change the momentum as Brown and Wolters scored to stretch the margin to 38-21. Despite Gordic's best efforts, Wolters's triple made it a 20-point game. Hamilton impressed with a few dunks, but another three by Canaan made it 51-31 at the break.

The UNICS lead only grew as Holland began the second half with a three. The pace slowed with each team scoring just twice in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter. Mornar was able to close the gap to 58-41 through free throws by Gordic and Nemanja Vranes. UNICS finished the third quarter on a 9-0 run, which Artem Klimenko completed, to lead 67-41. Evgeny Kolesnikov's floater to start the fourth quarter gave UNICS its biggest lead, 69-41. The teams traded points after that with the outcome essentially decided. Hamilton played well with a pair of blocks and basket-plus-foul as Mornar made the final score a little more respectable, 80-59. Whitehead left the game late with an apparent shoulder injury in the closing minutes.

Back in the round of eight

With this win UNICS qualified for the quarterfinals for the fourth season in a row and the 10th time in its 14 seasons in the competition. It has reached the semifinals five times – most recently in 2019. A two-time EuroCup finalist, UNICS captured the crown in 2011.

Milestones for Smith

Jamar Smith became the 14th player to appear in 100 career EuroCup games when he came on in the second quarter and the star guard moved into third place on the career scoring charts with his first basket, a three-pointer, which took him past Errick McCollum. Smith finished with 8 points, giving him 1,228 for his career and putting him well within striking distance of Rafa Martinez (1,240) for second place.

Stellar stats

UNICS dominated the glass with 44 rebounds to Mornar's 26. The hosts used that advantage to score 23 second-chance points, while Mornar had just 2. Three-point shooting also helped tell the story of the game; UNICS made 12 of 27 (44.4%), while Mornar shot 3 for 21 (14.3%).

What's next?

When EuroCup action resumes next month, both teams will be at home for their Top 16, Round 5 games. Mornar hosts Herbalife Gran Canaria on Tuesday, March 2. UNICS faces MoraBanc Andorra the following evening.

Okaro White - UNICS Kazan (photo UNICS - Kseniya Bogdanova) - EC20
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: PASTUSIAK, PIOTR; HALLIKO, AARE; AMBROSOV, MYKOLA
Attendance: 2382
By Quarter1234
UNICS Kazan27241619
Mornar Bar17141020
End of Quarter1234
UNICS Kazan27516786
Mornar Bar17314161
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 25:15 9 4/8   1/2 1 3 4 1 4 6   1 5 2 3
3 CANAAN, ISAIAH 22:58 14 1/3 4/10   1 1 2     1   1 1 1 6
6 ZHBANOV, GEORGY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 WOLTERS, NATE 21:58 7 2/2 1/1     2 2 2   1     2 1 9
9 WHITE, OKARO 22:26 12 1/3 2/5 4/4 3 3 6 1 2 1 1 1 2 3 16
12 KLIMENKO, ARTEM 11:08 4 2/2     1 3 4 1 1       3   7
13 UZINSKII, DMITRII 5:34 5 1/1 1/1   1 1 2           2   5
15 SMITH, JAMAR 17:02 8 2/4 1/3 1/2 1 1 2 1   2       3 7
19 MORGAN, JORDAN 15:37 8 3/6   2/3 2 4 6 2 1 3   1 4 2 7
23 HOLLAND, JOHN 26:02 11 1/2 3/7   1 4 5 4 1 1   1 3 1 12
25 THEODORE, JORDAN 18:02 2 1/1       4 4 7 1 2     1 3 14
42 KOLESNIKOV, EVGENY 13:58 6 3/5           2         2   4
Team           5 2 7     1         6
Totals 200:00 86 21/37 12/27 8/11 16 28 44 21 10 18 1 5 25 16 96
        56.8% 44.4% 72.7%
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
Mornar Bar
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 GABRIEL, KENNY 21:37 7 0/2 2/3 1/2 1 1 2   1       2 1 5
6 JEREMIC, MARKO 21:21     0/4   1   1     1     4 1 -7
7 GORDIC, NEMANJA 29:36 14 5/8 0/2 4/5   1 1 2 1 4     3 4 9
8 SEHOVIC, SEAD 16:39 2 1/4       1 1 2 1       2 1 2
9 SMITH, TAYLOR 14:09 8 3/5   2/4 1   1 1 1 1 1     3 10
11 WHITEHEAD, ISAIAH 29:12 11 1/3 1/5 6/7   2 2 5 2 4   1   6 14
13 LAZIC, ALEKSANDAR 18:23   0/1 0/3   1 4 5 1 1 2 1   3 2 1
17 VUJOSEVIC, RADOJE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
24 HAMILTON, JOHNNY 25:51 12 5/8   2/4 3 5 8   1 2 3     5 22
41 VRANJES, NEMANJA 23:12 7 2/3 0/4 3/4 1 1 2 1 1       2 2 5
51 BJELICA, MILKO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
55 LUKOVIC, UROS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 61 17/34 3/21 18/26 9 17 26 12 9 14 5 1 16 25 64
        50% 14.3% 69.2%
Head coach: PAVICEVIC, MIHAILO

Head Coaches

PRIFTIS, DIMITRIS
UNICS Kazan
"We are happy, it's our fourth consecutive win. We have to continue with the same concepts, same approach. We were serious today, we didn’t underestimate the opponent and that’s very important. Also we passed the ball, we played well on offense, not only defense, so we are glad."
PAVICEVIC, MIHAILO
Mornar Bar
"First of all, I want to congratulate UNICS and their coach for, I can say, an easy win tonight. They played great basketball and I wish them all the best as they continue in this competition. As I said before the game, we came here without two starting guards, Jacob Pullen and Derek Needham, and we had problems with our offense. We couldn’t organize, we couldn’t run our offense how we usually do and we had no answer for their very aggressive defense. Our shooting on three-pointers was very bad, 3 for 21. And the second thing is rebounds; they outrebounded us. They had 44, we had 26. Tough game. We have the EuroCup break and that break comes in the right time for us. "

Players

THEODORE, JORDAN
UNICS Kazan
"Very tough game for us. We knew they were going to come in and fight. We just played them last week. It's never easy to play a team back-to-back. You have to give our guys a lot of credit, we locked in defensively, offensively we executed and we were able to execute the game plan and get it done."
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