UNICS Kazan staged a dramatic comeback to drag Dynamo Moscow into two rounds of overtime before triumphing 115-107 in the opening game of the Gomelsky Memorial Tournament.

Dynamo controlled the game and raced to 76-64 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter, before Kazan fought back.

Dynamo withheld the pressure and led with 20 seconds remaining, but on the buzzer Aleksandr Miloserdov netted to level the scores at 87-87.

The game headed into overtime and then a second overtime before Jarod Stevenson netted his 15th point of the game to seal the game for Kazan.

Seven players scored in double figures for UNICS, topped by 22 points and 11 rebounds of Yegor Meshcheryakov and 19 points apiece from Mateen Cleaves and Saulius Stombergas.

		Oleksiy Pecherov scored 22 points in BC Kyiv's loss.

Meanwhile, Khimik Yuzhny defeated BC Kyiv 89-83 in the two teams’ opener of the tournament.

Yuzhny, inspired by the home crowd, had a strong start to the game thanks to red-hot three-point shooting (54% for the game).

They took a nine-point lead into halftime, which eventually propelled them to the win.

“We wanted and we needed this win bad prior to the start of the Superleague”, said Yuzhny’s forward Yaroslav Zubritskiy (17 points and five rebounds) to www.basket.com.ua after the game.

“We have already played many scrimmages and although there are still some minor problems left, the team is in good conditions both physically and tactically”

Yuzhny’s coach Zvezdan Mitrovic was happy to finally defeat the rivals from Kyiv.

“The tournament has just started and my team was very motivated to defeat Kyiv, whom we hadn’t beaten for a very long time,” he said.

Mitrovic also said that Kyiv would need more time to find understanding on the court, especially now that they are trying two new players out.

Apart from Oleksiy Pecherov, who had game-high 22 points, Kyiv got 19 and 15 points from Milan Dozet and Stjepan Stazic respectively. Both players appeared to be good fits for the team, despite playing their first ever game for the Ukrainian giants.

Although head coach Victor Berejnoi, who is still in the process of building a new team, admitted that the main goal was to win, he did not seem to be very upset over the loss.

“The result is always important for us”, he said.

“But today we played against a team that would not miss from beyond the arch, which explains our troubles. Moreover, Ja Ja (Richards) picked up three personal fouls during the first four minutes of the game, which forced us to make a lot of adjustments. And when we finally gained control, time ran out.”

Match-day two fill feature games between BC Kyiv vs. Dynamo Moscow and Khimik Yuzhny vs. UNICS Kazan.