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

UNICS defeated Astana at home, 100-73. The home team picked up a comfortable lead in the 1st quarter and never let the visitors threaten. UNICS has now won 11 straight and improves to 16-2.

Recap
Keith Langford was once again missing from the lineup, but Kazan's offense showed no ill effects, racing to a 16-point lead in the 1st quarter. Anton Ponkrashov and Quino Colom set teammates up for open looks and the lead continued to grow in the second period, reaching 23 by halftime, 54-31.

During the second half, Evgeny Pashutin had his team slow the tempo and brought in the reserves, including two Kazan academy products: Dmitry Nezvankin and Ruslan Khabirov. Astana was unable to take advantage, ultimately giving up 100 points in a 27-point defeat. Kazan cracks the century mark for the 6th time this season.

Star Player
Anton Ponkrashov. The Russian point guard was a terrific distributor, finishing with his first double-double in the VTB United League since 2014: 15 points and 10 assists.

Stat of the Game
0 - neither team recorded a single block.

Quotes
UNICS head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
- My players took the game very seriously. This was the game that we wanted to see on defense and on offense. Our opponent is very aggressive on the glass, but we beat them in that component of the game, too. We controlled the fast break and our opponent's outside shooting. On offense, we were very active and recorded 16 assists in the first half. The team communicates well on the court and gets along well. It's important to maintain that attitude. We have some very important games coming up.

Astana head coach Ramunas Butautas:
- The outcome reflected the game. We played as hard as we could. UNICS is an excellent team with an excellent coach. We didn't have a full roster and that could be seen in our play. We weren't disciplined, which, I'll admit, discouraged me.

Snapshot