2016-17SemifinalsGame 1
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 57
Unicaja Malaga 73
March 14, 2017 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 BASKET HALL

Unicaja steals home-court advantage with big win in Krasnodar

Unicaja Malaga took control of its 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals series against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar with a 57-73 victory in Game 1 on Tuesday. Unicaja hosts Game 2 of the best-of-three series on Friday with a chance to claim a spot in the finals. The visitors used a 0-11 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters to pull away for good. Unicaja made the difference with its defense as it did not allow Lokomotiv to score more than 13 points in any of the last three quarters while limiting the hosts to 2-of-20 shooting (10%) from three-point range. Unicaja in contrast made 9 of 20 shots (45%) from downtown, with Dani Diez connecting on 3 of those. Jeff Brooks paced the winners with 18 points and Kyle Fogg scored 15. Kevin Jones paced Lokomotiv with 17 points, Taylor Rochestie tallied 14 points and 6 assists and Matt Janning added 10.

Rochestie got the hosts rolling with a long jumper and an assist to Mardy Collins for a 7-2 lead, but Dejan Musli kept Unicaja close. After Brooks drew the visitors within 1, Janning nailed a three and then came up with a steal that led to a Jones basket, a 16-10 advantage and a Unicaja timeout. However a three-point play by Ryan Broekhoff extended the margin to 9. Jamar Smith and Fogg combined for 5 quick points to bring the visitors within 19-15 after 10 minutes. Brooks opened the second quarter with a triple that closed the gap to 1. Collins hooked up with Andrey Zubkov twice – once a bounce pass for a slam and then a full-court toss for a fast-break layup – as Lokomotiv rebuilt its lead. However Unicaja kept close and evened the score at 25-25 on a Diez three midway through the corner. Nemanja Nedovic completed the comeback with a free throw. Rochestie restored Lokomotiv control, but the teams stayed close the rest of the half, which ended with Unicaja up 31-33 after Diez’s second three.

Rochestie and Jones combined for the first 6 points of the second half as Lokomotiv held Unicaja to just a single basket in the first three minutes of the third quarter. However a three by Smith made it 39-38. And back-to-back threes by Fogg and Diez put Unicaja ahead 42-44. Alen Omic sank a pair of free throws to give the visitors a 44-48 edge after three quarters. Unicaja held Lokomotiv without points for more than three minutes while three-point plays by Brooks and Omic and a three-pointer by Adam Waczynski gave the visitors a 44-57 lead. After Lokomotiv got within 8, Fogg heated up with 7 points over three possession to make it 53-66 with three-plus minutes remaining. A bank shot by Nedovic took the advantage to 15 in the penultimate minute as Unicaja held on to take control of the series.

Kyle Fogg - Unicaja Malaga - EC16 (photo Lokomotiv)
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: RYZHYK, BORYS; MOGULKOC, EMIN; TRAWICKI, TOMASZ
Attendance: 5744
By Quarter1234
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar19121313
Unicaja Malaga15181525
End of Quarter1234
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar19314457
Unicaja Malaga15334873
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 COLLINS, MARDY 27:39 4 2/7 0/1   1 4 5 3 1 1     2 1 5
4 BABURIN, EVGENY 12:25   0/1 0/1         1   1     5   -7
5 JONES, KEVIN 28:24 17 8/14   1/1 1 2 3   1       1 2 16
10 IVLEV, VLADIMIR 14:01         2 1 3 2     1   3   3
12 JANNING, MATT 24:30 10 1/2 1/7 5/6 1 2 3 1 2 2     2 5 9
13 KHVOSTOV, DMITRY 9:49 3 0/1 1/2     1 1           2 1 1
14 VOUGIOUKAS, IAN 15:28 1 0/2   1/2 2 5 7   1 1     2 4 7
17 BERZINS, KASPARS 1:41     0/1               1   1   -1
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 22:59 5 2/4 0/1 1/2 1 3 4   2 2     1 2 6
22 ROCHESTIE, TAYLOR 26:40 14 6/9 0/4 2/2 3 1 4 6 2 2     2 2 17
31 ZAKHAROV, DENIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
45 BROEKHOFF, RYAN 16:24 3 1/3 0/3 1/1   1 1   1 1     3 1 -3
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 57 20/43 2/20 11/14 12 21 33 13 10 10 2 0 24 18 55
        46.5% 10% 78.6%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, SASA
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Unicaja Malaga
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 OKOUO, VINY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 FOGG, KYLE 25:39 15 2/6 2/3 5/6 1 4 5 3 2 2     3 5 19
9 DIAZ, ALBERTO 16:40   0/1 0/2     1 1 1   1     3 1 -4
11 DIEZ, DANIEL 19:04 9 0/1 3/5     5 5           1   10
15 SMITH, JAMAR 20:16 7 0/3 2/4 1/2   1 1 2   3     3 1 -1
16 NEDOVIC, NEMANJA 18:34 7 2/5 0/3 3/6   2 2     3   1 1 3 -2
20 LAFAYETTE, OLIVER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 WACZYNSKI, ADAM 28:21 6 0/2 1/2 3/3 1 5 6   1     1   3 12
23 BROOKS, JEFF 33:09 18 7/10 1/1 1/1 3 2 5   1 1     2 2 20
43 SUAREZ, CARLOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
44 MUSLI, DEJAN 8:58 6 3/4       1 1     2     2 1 3
92 OMIC, ALEN 29:19 5 1/1   3/5   7 7 2   1     3 8 16
Team           5 2 7     1         6
Totals 200:00 73 15/33 9/20 16/23 10 30 40 8 4 14 0 2 18 24 79
        45.5% 45% 69.6%
Head coach: PLAZA, JOAN

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, SASA
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
"Probably the big break made us mentally unprepared for this game, but we missed so many open shots. We lost the rhythm. But anyway it’s just the first game and we gotta forget about this lost as soon as possible. They also have problems with the injuries. We will go there and do our best in order to come back here to Krasnodar for the third game."
PLAZA, JOAN
Unicaja Malaga
"We’re happy that we won today. We knew that Loko is a very serious team. They had a big break before this game, we didn’t. Before the game we also had a bad surprise; Suarez who is a key player, felt bad in his stomach. But we’re not the kind of team who cries when they have problems. At the same time, we do understand that Loko will come to Malaga with a completely different approach. As for today, we won three quarters and I suppose deserved the win. "

Players

NEDOVIC, NEMANJA
Unicaja Malaga
"The team showed up today. We were without Carlos [Suarez] and Dejan [Musli] got hurt; we were down two guys, but everybody stepped up. We had a plan from the beginning fo the game and we did a great job executing the game plan. Nothing is over. We have a home game to finish the job and qualify for the finals and hopefully we will get the job done. The plan was just to survive the first quarter and then as the game was going just to try to confuse them with pressure and I think we did a great job defensively. They scored 57 points and stopping Lokomotiv on 57 points is really, really good."