Last season's Bulgarian League runners-up did not pose any difficulties to their Russian counterparts this evening as UNICS won with a big difference in the score for the first time this season. Only for the first 3 minutes did the guests play at the same level as their hosts. Nadjfeji, the new-comer for UNICS, hit the court for the first time for the Russian side.
The Kazan team switched to zone defense and the score started to grow in their favour as Sofia had difficulty scoring. for UNICS.The quarter was finished by a slam-dunk from Clark, 21-12.
The Bulgarian defense was weak and as a result they let Kazan team play well and with efficiency. The score after the first half was 43-27 as Sofia's shooting percent ws nothing short of abysmal (0\10 3-pointers).
The third period did not change anything – UNICS kept extending their lead and hardly needed to guard the Bulgarian's playmaker at all. After the third quarter it was already clear who would win: 66-44 in UNICS favour after 30 minutes.
At the beginning of the 4th quarter Williams made 3 3-pointers and Ferguson also made 2 shots. The now big difference in the score allowed Eremine to use Iosipovic, Zukanenko and Ekimov. The final score 98-67.
Stanislav Eremine (Head Coach UNICS Kazan)
"A ten day break without games influenced our game tonight. I am pleased with the result. We solved our main task- to guard Ferguson with Miloserdov."
Rossan Barchovski (Head Coach PBC CSKA Sofia)
"Our result in this game came from our low shooting percentage. And when the gap was too big it is very difficult to catch up. Our play-maker Bosov was missing and also before this game in Kazan we have had 2 difficult games."