Russia (bbabo.net), - In a match of the regular season of the United League, which was crazy in terms of passion and drama, basketball players from UNICS Kazan defeated CSKA on the guest site in Moscow - 105:103. This game will go down in history as one of the brightest in the history of the international tournament.
In the capital "Megasport" about two thousand spectators gathered for the game. Not a bad figure for today, given the restrictions in place during the pandemic and the fact that many sports fans are focused on the events of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
This season, the participants of the May "golden" series of the playoffs of the United League met for the fourth time. In early November, within the framework of our tournament, Kazan at home defeated the reigning champion with a score of 69:64, and in mid-December, the team from the capital of Tatarstan won again, but in Moscow and in the Euroleague meeting, and even more convincingly - 88:67. However, quite recently, at the end of January 2022, the Red-Blues managed to take revenge in Kazan in the game of the second round of the main continental competition - 86:75.
Now UNICS started the first quarter very confidently – 26:13. The army team was catching up with their principled opponent for a long time, gradually, and yet, at the end of the second ten-minute period, after a hit by their captain Nikita Kurbanov, they reduced the gap to a minimum - 41:42. With such a score, the rivals went for a long break.
Then there was an equal game, leadership changed every now and then, everything went to the denouement in the last seconds of normal time. But this did not happen, by the end of 40 minutes the point was not set. Ten seconds before the siren, the best player of the United League in January, according to the fans, the Croatian legionnaire of UNICS Mario Hezonja brought the guests ahead (77:75), in the return attack, the army Lithuanian Marius Grigonis earned free throws and was accurate twice from the line. On the scoreboard - four "axes", that is, 77:77.
Surprisingly, the scenario of this ending was almost repeated at the finish of the first additional five-minute period. 5 seconds before the signal, Grigonis is again on the penalty line, and again he puts two balls one after the other into the goal - 85:85.
It was not possible to determine the winner in the second added five-minute period. Again, the army team escaped with free throws, but this time by Daniel Hackett, after his throws there was still half a minute left - the score did not change. Once again absolute equality - 92:92.
And yet, Kazan, led by Croatian specialist Velimir Perasovic, who was appointed by the League on merit as the coach of the World Stars team for the All-Star Game on February 20, tipped the scales in the third overtime in their favor. At the beginning of the 55th minute, UNICS was losing (101:103), the victory was achieved thanks to a hit by Mario Hezona and an accurate throw by OJ Mayo, which he made a moment before the siren, which was already final.
The main statistical results of this fantastic match are as follows: Mario Hezonha (31 points) and John Brown (16) became the most productive in the winners' lineup, Daniel Hackett (33) and Gabriel Iffe Lundberg (19) were the top scorers in the ranks of CSKA. Moreover, Hackett has five well-aimed shots from behind a three-point arc, army man Nikola Milutinov made a dozen rebounds, his rivals Khezonya and Tony Dzhekiri - ten each.
In another game of the day, the St. Petersburg "Zenith" on the road with a minimum margin overcame the Estonian "Kalev" - 75:74. Opponents picked up the spirit of uncompromising struggle from CSKA and Kazan. The winners of Monday's matches are in the lead in the United League championship.
Indicators UNICS – 11 wins – 2 losses, “Zenith” – 10 wins and 3 misfires. Next in the regular season table are (ranking by percentage of wins) Avtodor Saratov (8-3), CSKA (9-4), Parma Perm and Lokomotiv-Kuban Krasnodar (6-4 each). BC Nizhny Novgorod (5-6) and Krasnoyarsk Yenisei (4-7) are also in the zone of getting into the playoffs.
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