UNICS head coach Dejan Radonjic shared his thoughts on the first game of the VTB United League playoff semifinal series against Zenit, which ended in a 107–104 overtime loss for his team. He acknowledged that Zenit made mistakes in the third quarter but managed to fight back into the contest.
UNICS (Kazan) 107 – 104 OT – Zenit (Saint Petersburg)
UNICS: Pierre – 27, Reynolds – 23, D. Kulagin – 18, Lee – 15, Bingham – 14, Shved – 6, M. Kulagin – 2, Lopatin – 2, Belenitsky, Manford, Zakharov, Abdulbasirov
Zenit: Shamanich – 28, Zhbanov – 23, Fraser – 10, Martyuk – 9, Moon – 9, Vorontsevich – 8, Juzang – 7, Roberson – 5, Uzinsky – 5, Karasev, Yemchenko, Zemsky
“First of all, it was a great game, especially for the fans. The decisive moment was the third quarter, which we played poorly, but we managed to come back and had a chance to win. One of the best shooters, Dmitry Kulagin, forced overtime for UNICS — at that moment we had a misunderstanding. In the end, they won. We need to analyze the match and put in a strong performance.
Both teams attacked brilliantly. Pierre is a EuroLeague-level player, and today he showed his best qualities,” Radonjic said, as quoted on the official VTB United League website.
