Today the Tor 16 of the men’s Eurocup is over. As a result, all three Russian teams – “Lokomotiv-Kuban”, UNICS and “Zenit” – reached the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Before today’s matches, the fate of only “Zenit” remained unclear. “Lokomotiv-Kuban” ahead of time became the winner of the group, but today extended his phenomenal series in the tournament – 16 wins in 16 matches! However, in the guest game with the Italian “Trento” Krasnodar almost missed the victory. Before the last quarter they conducted “+12” (57:45), but 34 seconds before the final siren allowed the hosts to equalize – 69:69. The key was Joe Ragland’s long-range hit in the next attack.
UNICS prematurely became the second … yesterday, when “Reggio Emilia” beat at home “Villeurbanne” (75:68). And although the outcome of the home meeting with the French “Limoges” no longer mattered, the Kazanians achieved victory. Despite the fact that they conceded after the first half (43:46), and the final period began with an equal score of 65:65. Jamar Smith scored 16 points in this meeting.
But “Zenit” made the fans nervous. The team could not lose to the Italian “Fiat” more than 11 points, but by a long break the backlog of Petersburgers just reached “-11” (36:47). The key moment occurred at the very beginning of the third period. As a result, “Zenit” defeated the opponent in this quarter 29:9 and quietly brought the matter to victory. Sergey Karasev scored 17 points, Kyle Kuric – 13.
