Milano’s nightmare in Kazan: UNICS blow out Armani Exchange in dominant fashion / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Roman Kruchinin/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Roman Kruchinin/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Russian side UNICS Kazan (5-5) completely annihilated current EuroLeague leaders AX Armani Exchange Milan (8-2) in the tenth round of the competition.

Player of the Game EFF 27 John Brown Points 19 Accuracy 8-10 Rebounds 5 Assists 3

The team coached by Vladimir Perasovic won 97-71 (19-17, 25-16, 27-16, 26-22) and looked absolutely in control for most of the game.

Milan gave up in the final quarter, and Kazan kept expanding their lead to a maximum of 35 points (95-60). The team coached by Messina looked completely lost offensively, and turnovers started to pile up.

The Russian maintained excellent percentages from outside and finished the third quarter on high notes, up by 22 points (71-49).

In the second half, Milan kept struggling to contain Isaiah Canaan and John Brown. Armani’s defensive rotations always looked a little late, and UNICS extended their lead to 14 points (54-40).

“I feel great because we played against the best team at the moment in this competition,” Perasovic said after the victory. “Today, we scored everything. It’s not normal to score like today, but we had a lot of games where we had problems with our scoring.”

“Today, we scored some really, really tough shots. That helped. Also, our defense was good. We played with heart, which is important to beat an opponent like this,” he added.

Milan tried to impose their defense on the game later in the second, and with five consecutive points from Gigi Datome, they cut their deficit to 8 points (41-33). Isaiah Canaan finished with 13 points after the first 20 minutes.

Kazan began the second quarter showing all their offensive potential. OJ Mayo was on fire and scored 10 points in a row, giving UNICS their maximum lead (30-19).

“Congratulations to UNICS. They deserved it,” Messina admitted. “They were better in every part of the game. And we had no chance from the first minute. Every team experiences some horrible nights during such a long season.”

“It was our turn tonight. We will move on. We have a game in 48 hours, and we need to be prepared for that. Again congratulations to Coach Perasovic and his team, and good luck,” Messina concluded.

Isaiah Canaan was the top scorer for UNICS Kazan with 22 points (2/2 2PT, 6/8 3PT), 5 REB, 1 AST, 1 STE, and 23 PIR.

For Olimpia Milan, the top scorers were Shavon Shields, Nicolò Melli, and Gigi Datome all with 10 points.

UNICS: Isaiah Canaan 22 (5 REB), OJ Mayo 20, John Brown 19 (5 REB), Tonye Jekiri 10 (7 REB)

Olimpia Milan: Nicolò Melli 10, Shavon Shields 10, Gigi Datome 10.

Highlights

Like what we are doing? Support us by becoming BN+ member.