By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The game went down to the wire but Unics faired better in the crunch time to grab a 69-65 win over Lokomotiv Kuban and advance to the EuroCup semifinals where they will clash with Valencia.
Jamar Smith made a triple to put Unics ahead 62-60 with a bit more than a minute remaining. Lokomotiv’s JaJuan Johnson responded with a tough buzzer-beater to tie the game but Kostas Kaimakoglou nailed the three-point dagger (65-62) from which the guests couldn’t recover.
Kaimakoglou finished the game with 14 points followed by Errick McCollum‘s 11. For Lokomotiv, JaJuan Johnson notched a double-double with 15 points and 12 boards in addition to Dmitry Kulagin’s 16 points.
The guests had an upper hand after the first ten minutes (16-10) but Kostas Kaimakoglou stepped up for Unics as he nailed 11 points in the second quarter to turn the tables (37-29).
However, Lokomotiv put on a furious start to the second half with an 11-0 run, led by Dmitry Kulagin and JaJuan Johnson, coming right back into the game but still a bit behind in front of the final period (47-46). The game stayed balanced until the very end with both teams having a chance at victory but, in the end, it belonged to Unics after a thrilling finish.
Photo Credit: 7DAYS EuroCup