«Bisons» Loimaa, Finland vs. UNICS Kazan, Russia

UNICS defeated Bisons on the road, 93-74. The home team led by two at halftime, but Evgeny Pashutin's men upped the tempo in the second half and cruised to a 21-point victory, Kazan's 4th in a row.

Recap
Loimaa shocked the league last week, knocking off Lokomotiv-Kuban at home. With UNICS coming to town, Bisons hoped to make it two straight.

Kazan, meanwhile, had won three in a row and wanted to keep the momentum rolling.

Bisons enjoyed the upper hand in the first half. The Finns' strategy was simple: feed the ball inside to Justin Jackson and Ide Udanoh, who combined for 17 points in the first two quarters.

UNICS also enjoyed success in the paint as both teams struggled to shoot from outside. Bisons led by as much as six points in the 2nd quarter, but hit the locker room with a slender two-point advantage after Arturas Milaknis's '3' on Kazan's final possession of the half, 40-38.

Kazan amped up the pressure on defense in the second half, while Keith Langford took over on offense. Evgeny Pashutin's men were simply more creative and gradually pulled away. The lead hit double digits for the first time with 7:36 left in the 4th quarter and UNICS cruised from there, scoring 55 points in the second half.

Star of the Game
Keith Langford. The Kazan guard led UNICS in the second half and finished with a game-high 20 points. Quino Colom was also very effective, coming up just of a triple-double (14 points, nine assists, eight rebounds).

Stat of the Game
40 - Colom and Langford played the entire game without substitutions.

Stats

Quotes
Bisons head coach Greg Gibson:
- Being aggressive is the key to everything. We played aggressive basketball in the first half, both on defense and offense, which is why we were ahead. We could have scored even more, but that's not an excuse. Langford is a great player, one of the best in Europe. We couldn't stop him. More than anything, I was upset that once we fell behind by 10 points, some of the players gave up and stopped competing.

UNICS head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
-It's never easy to play in Finland. Bisons are very high energy and push the tempo. A lot of teams have lost here. It's hard to adapt. We also struggled in the first half. During the 3rd and 4th quarters we got the game under control. We needed to stop the fast break, even by fouling. I think UNICS managed to do that.

Snapshot