UNICS neutralized Dimitrovic and shone with Pierre: Zenit left Kazan empty-handed

A compatriot of Perasovich became a new threat to UNICS

The match of the week in the VTB United League attracted attention with several nuances, and one of them is Nenad Dimitrovic's first game in the arena where he won the championship with the Kazan club two years ago. However, after his departure to Milan and return to Zenit, fans in Kazan were no longer applauding his incomparable three-pointers, but his misses. There were too many of them, in fact — the Macedonian converted 1 out of 11 field goal attempts. His once famous three-pointers just wouldn't go into the Kazan basket. He only got four points from successfully made free throws and one accurate shot in the second quarter.

In general, the match did not go well for Zenit — reinforcements in the form of 25-year-old Croatian center Luka Shamanić and 30-year-old American guard Noah Vonleh, of course, worked, but UNICS turned out to be much «bigger» and stronger. The St. Petersburg team managed to seize the initiative only in the second quarter, just to catch up with Kazan, but they didn't manage to comfortably take the lead.

— This is a team that plays very physically, and they will be very tough. They will punish you if you don't play at the right level from time to time, so I think we just didn't do very well, — Trent Frazier commented on his team's game.

He also conveyed the words of his coach, who pointed out that UNICS is not a team that will «play badly for two or three minutes in a row».

The start of the match was confidently taken by the home team; after a three-pointer from Livay Randolph, Zenit could not score points. Even Shamanić, who found himself fouled by Dmitry Kulagin and confidently pushed Andrey Lopatin under the basket, could not help. This quarter was left to the gaining momentum Dishon Pierre, for whom the Croatian was not a problem. The St. Petersburg team's coach, Alexander Sekulich, was forced to take a timeout, after which ex-UNICS player Ivan Lazarev ironically wrote on his social media:

— Great timeout from Andrey Vorontsevich.

«I hope we will sign a new player»

At the start of the second segment, the guests seized the initiative. Trent Frazier set the tone for his team and scored six points in five seconds. «This is impossible», — Kazan team head coach Velimir Perasovich commented on his team's game during a timeout.

After Shamanić's shot put Zenit in the lead for the first time, the leader changed six times until the end of the first half. But the short bench of the Kazan team made itself felt:

— Today we were able to win like this. However, if we continue to play with such a short roster, we may have big problems in the future. I hope our injured players will recover soon or we will sign a new player. Because it's very difficult to play every three days and use the same players, — Perasovich said after the match.

The third quarter again proved who was in charge, and the Kazan team began to pull ahead by +9. At the beginning of the second half, both teams started making a lot of mistakes, especially Andrey Martyuk from Zenit. Having moved from Lokomotiv-Kuban this summer, he has often been the X-factor in many matches for his new club, but this time he got lost and was overwhelmed by UNICS big men. The center managed to bring four points and one steal to his team, and the maximum number of fouls forced him to sit on the bench already in the third quarter. But the Kazan team also had their moments: Alexey Shved was caught by the referees for double dribble, Reynolds got his first unsportsmanlike foul of the season, and Perasovich received a technical foul for talking to the referees.

Will UNICS extend Shved's contract?

In general, UNICS apparently remembered that they had not lost a single match in their walls for 21 consecutive games this season and decided to step up towards the end of the match so as not to break the record. Although both teams are now in the top 3 of the standings, the St. Petersburg team could not impose a fight on the Kazan team even for a clutch. In the last five minutes, they took advantage of the fact that they had only one team foul, so fast breaks were immediately disrupted by Bingham and Zakharov. Perasovich brought out his coolest fighter and League veteran, Shved, who managed to make several productive passes. Lopatin and Pierre brought five more points a minute before the end — and the Kazan team secured their confident 14th victory.

— This was in some sense a strange game for us in terms of how we started the game, we allowed the opponent to do whatever he wanted without any reaction <...> In the second half, we simply gave up the physical effort that the winning team showed, especially in defense, — Alexander Sekulich shared his opinion.

This is already the sixth defeat of his team this season. Zenit has never been able to defeat CSKA and the Kazan team.

After the match, it became known that UNICS president Yevgeny Bogachev announced plans to extend cooperation with point guard Alexey Shved. In an interview with Sport-Express, he said:

— We are interested in Shved staying with us until the end of the season. We have made him a corresponding offer. What will happen next — we'll see. I can't guess. In my opinion, he has fit in well with the team and is trying his best.

Recall that UNICS still has two matches left on their calendar before the end of the year, and both are away: on November 24 against MBA-MAI and on the 28th against Uralmash. The Kazan team will return to their home court only on January 18.

Match statistics:

UNICS — Zenit — 88:75 (23:14, 23:34, 19:12, 23:15).

Leaders of the Kazan team: Pierre (24), Bingham (19 + 12 rebounds), Lopatin (16), Reynolds (16 + 7 rebounds).

Leaders of the St. Petersburg team: Shamanić (20 + 5 rebounds), Frazier (19), Vonleh (10 + 8 rebounds).