UNICS Kazan, Russia vs. «Astana» Astana, Kazakhstan

UNICS (Russia) defeated Astana (Kazakhstan) at home, 72-70. The visitors pulled away late in the first quarter, building a 12-point lead by halftime. Down by as much as 17 points early in the third, UNICS cut the deficit to five thanks to lights-out three-point shooting, before earning the win in the fourth quarter with its defense. Keith Langford led the way for the home team with 16 points.

Intro
UNICS entered the contest on a 3-game winning streak, including huge victories in the Euroleague over Real Madrid and Anadolu Efes. A win today would keep the team in pursuit of the league's top three. Astana, meanwhile, was coming off a blowout loss to CSKA and hoped to do better on the road against another league powerhouse.

A pair of Luksa Andric turnovers helped UNICS take a quick 6-1 lead, but the rest of the first quarter belonged to the visitors. Balanced scoring and sticky defense that held UNICS to just four points over more than eight minutes gave Astana a 20-12 advantage at the end of the period.

Kazan briefly cut the lead to five on a Nikos Zisis 3-pointer, 20-15, before the visitors reeled off a 14-0 run, this time holding UNICS scoreless for 5:37. Kazan center D'or Fischer finally got a jumper to fall late in the first half and his team entered halftime on a 7-0 run, but Astana still led by 12 points, 36-24.

Alexandar Trifunovic's men began to pull away again early in the third quarter. The visitors outhustled UNICS, with forward Pat Calathes scoring twice on putbacks at the rim to push the Kazakh club back in front by 17.

With just over 16 minutes to play, Kazan needed to find a way to turn the game around. They found their answer out on the perimeter. Big man Konstantinos Kaimakoglou hit the team's first 3-pointer of the second half at the 6:10 mark, while his teammates combined for four more in the third quarter to pull UNICS within five points, 52-47.

Turning Point
Trailing 61-54 with under five minutes to play, the home team rode its defense for the comeback win. UNICS guard Keith Langford started the turnaround by stripping Anton Ponomarev. Kaimakoglou scored on the ensuing possession, grabbing his own miss at the rim and putting it back for two. UNICS took the lead a few minutes later after two more Astana turnovers.

The final 13 points in the game were scored at the free-throw line. Astana guard Jerry Johnson tied the score at 66-66 on three straight freebies, and the visitors had a chance to take the lead after Langford missed at the rim, but a traveling violation from Ponomarev gave the ball back to the home team.

After a series of free throws on both ends, the game, unsurprisingly, was decided at the charity stripe. Langford missed the second of two attempts with three seconds left, his team up 72-70. Astana got the rebound and threw it the length of the court to Pat Calathes, who was fouled with 0.2 left on the clock. Needing to hit both, the Astana big man missed the first, sealing the UNICS win.

Star of the Game
Keith Langford. The UNICS guard was by no means perfect, going 5-9 from the free-throw line, but his persistence helped the home team wear Astana down in the fourth quarter. He started the UNICS comeback by stripping Kolesnikov, he gave UNICS its first lead since early in the first quarter, and his ability to draw fouls down the stretch gave Kazan just enough offense to pull out the win.

Stats of the Game
44-28 and 15-7. Astana dominated UNICS on the glass, outrebounding the Russian club by 16, including a 13-6 advantage on the offensive end. But they still lost, in large part because they couldn't take care of the ball. Astana committed eight more turnovers than UNICS, including 7 (!) in the final quarter.

Quotes
UNICS head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
- I think that when the team can shift the momentum in a game like this, that's where the team's strength lies. I won't mention the recent game in Madrid, the long trip home and small amount of time to recover. A lot of teams face the same conditions. Our guys played like men today. They showed that they could play with teams that have a different playing style. We improved our defense significantly in the second half. Our opponent had to shoot contested shots. That's why we gave up 16 points in the third quarter and 18 points in the fourth. In the final period we took advantage of Kaimakoglou, Langford and Jerrells's individual abilities. I'd like to note Antipov, who gave our play a fresh boost. He played good defense in addition to hitting three 3-pointers. Now our challenge is to recover prior to a Euroleague game.

Astana head coach Alexandar Trifunovic:
- I'm satisfied with how my guys played. After all, our opponent isn't just one of the best teams in the VTB United League, but all of Europe. We didn't have enough depth. Ivan Paunic recently had an appendicitis while Nik Caner-Medley hurt his spine. We played well in the first half. In the third and fourth quarters we started to make mistakes and lost our playing rhythm. A miss at the free throw line in the final seconds also had an impact on the outcome.

Top Performers
UNICS: Keith Langford - 16 points; Konstantinos Kaimakoglou - 14 points, six rebounds; D'or Fischer - 10 points, seven rebounds; Nikos Zisis - 10 points, four assists; Curtis Jerrells - nine points, five assists.

Astana: Pat Calathes - 20 points, 10 rebounds; Jerry Johnson - 17 points, eight assists; Anton Ponomarev - 11 points, five rebounds; Luksa Andric - 10 points.