UNICS Kazan will be the first guest of the «Astana» basketball club at the finish line of the VTB United League regular championship. The game will take place on Saturday, April 17, starting at 19:00 Nur-Sultan time.

UNICS - is a Russian professional men's basketball club from Kazan, founded in 1991. In addition to participating in the VTB United League, they in the Eurocup.
 
Achievements:

• Silver medalist of the Russian Championship — 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007
• Bronze medalist of the Russian Championship — 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009-2011, 2013/2014, 2018/2019
• Russian Cup Winner — 2003, 2009, 2014
• FIBA Euroleague Champion — 2003/2004
• European Cup Winner — 2010/2011
• European Cup finalist — 2013/2014
• NEBL Champion — 2002/2003
• Silver medalist of VTB United League — 2009/2010, 2011/2012, 2015/2016
• Bronze medalist of VTB United League — 2010/2011, 2018/2019

Our team met with UNICS at the beginning of the season on October 3, then Kazan team won a confident home victory. Since then, UNICS has held 19 games, 8 of which took place before the New Year. The team performed with mixed results during the first half of the season, winning half of their games. At home, Kazan beat “Yenisey”, “Khimki”, “Kalev” and “Tsmoki-Minsk”, but lost to CSKA, and on the road, their game was definitely not going well, they lost all three away matches — “Lokomotiv Kuban”, “Zielena Gora ”And“ Zenit ”. After the New Year, UNICS improved significantly, winning 10 matches in a row. It all started with a major victory over «Avtodor» and taking an act of revenge against «Zielena Gora», then there was the first away victory of the season, in the match with PARMA. Also on the road, they overplayed «Khimki», «Nizhny Novgorod», «Tsmoki-Minsk» and «Avtodor». At home, Kazan was able to take important revenge in the match with the leader of the tournament — “Zenit” and left no chances for “Nizhny Novgorod”, and on the road, “Kalev” did not have any special chances. Only CSKA was able to interrupt the victorious procession of UNICS in the last game.
 
Tournament position:

UNICS with fifteen victories in twenty games is on the second line and the issue of reaching the playoffs has been resolved for them a long time ago. They still have a chance to become the first at the end of the regular season, but for this they need to win all their remaining games, although this may not be enough. The result of the upcoming game will not change their standings, but it can strengthen the Kazan team on the second line. For “Astana” the playoffs this season are already unattainable, and the result of the upcoming game will also not change the position of the team in the standings. Now our guys are on the 12th line and in any case, they will not go any lower, but there are still chances to move up one or two positions, but for this, we need to get the most out of the remaining games.
 
Roster changes:

Greek Konstantinos Kaymakoglu played only one game for UNICS this season and left the team on New Year's Eve. Russian player Yegor Kuleshov joined UNICS in December, but also entered the court only once and was recalled in March. In November, defender Jordan Theodore, an American with second Macedonian citizenship, who also spent last season for UNICS, joined the Kazan team. He started his professional career at Turkish «Antalya», followed by «Mets de Guaynabo» and «Hurricanes del Atlantico» from Puerto Rico. After that, he played in Turkish “Mersin” and French “Burg”. The following season, Jodan Theodor won the FIBA ​​Europe Cup with the German «Skyliners Frankfurt». After that, he won the Turkish Cup with «Banvit» and the Italian team «Olympia Milan». Then he was in the Greek “AEK”, with which he won the FIBA ​​Intercontinental Cup and became the MVP of that tournament. In addition, the Kazan team announced the young player Kirill Anoshin, but he has not yet participated in the games.
 
Rival leaders:

The undisputed leaders of the team are Americans Isaiah Kanan and Jamar Smith, and John Brown and Jordan Theodore also have an excellent season. Nate Walters has impressive statistics but has not appeared on the site in the VTB United League for over a month. In addition, the Americans Okaro White, Jordan Morgan, and John Holland are doing an excellent job. Of the Russian players, the coaching staff constantly engages Evgeny Kolesnikov, Dmitry Uzinsky and Georgy Zhbanov.
 
The match will take place on Saturday, April 17 in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», beginning at 19:00 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section, and the recording of the game will be broadcast on the QazSport TV channel at 23:00.

Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.

The home game against Kazan UNICS the capital“Astana” played in the absence of key team members, both in the coaching staff and the players who missed the match for health reasons. But even in this difficult situation, our team gave a worthy fight to one of the leaders of the VTB United League.

The guests from Kazan won the jump ball and opened the score with an accurate three-pointer in the very first attack. “Astana” also did not linger and Eric Buckner immediately rehabilitated himself for a lost jump ball with an accurate throw from an average distance, he also brought his team forward for the first time. Then a full-fledged competition began, in which Jeremiah Hill, Eric Buckner, Ruslan Aitkali and Anton Ponomarev distinguished themselves by effective actions on the part of our team. After two points from Hill 4 minutes before the end of the first quarter, which again brought our guys forward, the teams took a break in scoring. Only a little over thirty seconds before the end of the period Jeremiah interrupted this pause, and, as it turned out, these were the last productive points in the quarter — 19:15. At the start of the second quarter, Nikolay Bazhin made an excellent interception, and Ojars Silins scored his first points in the match with a throw from beyond the arc. UNICS tried to restore balance to the game, but experienced difficulties with this, created by the capital's team. The main contribution to the retention of the initiative was made by Maxim Marchuk with his effective actions. However, this did not save our leadership and the guests managed to get ahead to the equator of the second period. Now our team has taken on the role of catching up and, unfortunately, the points of Buckner, Hill and Ponomarev could not regain control over the situation. The last two effective attacks in the first half of the match remained with the guests, and the teams left for the break with the score — 36:43.


 
In the second half, the Kazan team scored the first points, but immediately received a three-point response from Anton Ponomarev, who today tried on the captain's role. After that, the guests confidently went ahead and Ojars Silins's accurate three-pointer did not save our team from the first double-digit lag in this game. Nikolay Bazhin made his contribution to rectifying the situation, he played well twice in the paint and reduced the gap between the opponents to six points. However, the rivals were quickly able to regain a comfortable gap. Jeremiah Hill and Maxim Marchuk became the heroes of the next minutes of the game. First, the guys organized a spectacular alley-up — Maxim Marchuk from Hill's pass created not only one of the brightest moments of the match, but, possibly, will get into the top of the entire league this week. Then Maxim was accurate from an average distance, and Jeremiah converted a three-pointer. The difference from -12 was reduced to -5, to which the Kazan coaching staff responded with a timeout. Until the end of the period, Hill and Marchuk organized another alley-up, not so spectacular, but most importantly effective. As a result, the lag of “Astana” before the final quarter is not critical — 55:63. The start of the final ten minutes turned out to be not the most successful for Astana, and the Kazan advantage again exceeded 10 points, but our players continued to struggle. Hill and Maidekin brought the team points, and the difference was again reduced to 8 points. The key moment in the game happened when our team missed the rivals' spurt and was losing 15 points five minutes before the end of the meeting. After the equator of the quarter, points were actively scored by Ojars Silins and Jeremiah Hill, but this did not greatly affect the difference in the score, which after the final buzzy was fixed at the disappointing mark for «Astana» — 74:87.

Consequences: UNICS has strengthened its position on the second line in the standings of the regular season, and “Astana” remains at the 12th position.
   
Most productive:

• «Astana» — Jeremiah Hill had enough time to gain decent performance because today he played all 40 minutes without substitutions and became the most productive in the whole match — 21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Maxim Marchuk from Hill's assists converted a couple of alley-ups and scored 11 points and 2 steals. Anton Ponomarev, who today acted as the team captain, earned 10 points and 4 rebounds. Eric Buckner spent less than ten minutes on the court today, but that did not stop him from scoring 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Ojars Silins also had 8 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, while Ruslan Aitkali scored 9 points.
• UNICS — Okaru White (12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists) and Pavel Sergeev (14 points, 3 assists, 2 steals) became the best opponents.

   
Acting head coach of «Astana» — Sasho Todorovski:
- We had a chance in this game against a serious and strong opponent. I hope the coaching staff will return in full strength in the next game. Congratulations to UNICS on the victory and successful performance in the Eurocup.

UNICS head coach — Dimitris Priftis:
- This was a very important game, especially after our successful performance in the Eurocup, and we needed to control our emotions in all seriousness to the game. At the same time, “Astana” had problems, as the coaching staff and several players were absent. In general, we played well, except for the first quarter. But gradually we adjusted our game, especially in attack, and achieved victory. We have three VTB League games left and we will try to win them.
   
Next match: Next, the capital's team will have to play twice previously postponed home match against the Polish «Zielona Gora», which is scheduled for April 22.
 
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.