By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
UNICS Kazan traveled to Madrid as one of the hottest EuroLeague teams, while the hosts had to bounce back after losing to their arch-rival FC Barcelona for their domestic league. And when all was said and done, Real Madrid ended up getting an easy 85-68 win and sitting comfortably at the top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with a 17-3 record.
Walter Tavares led the charge with a double-double (14 p. 11 r.), Guerschon Yabusele added 13 points, Alberto Abalde scored 12 and Sergio Llull had 11 in an admirable team effort by the “Whites”.
“I think we did a great job against a great team”, said Tavares who added about keeping the top spot of the standings: “We know that we have to keep fighting until the end”.
It was a one-sided game with Madrid jumping to a 47-31 halftime lead and leading by 31 (74-43) just before the end of the third. The hosts dominated the boards, shot better, and never lost the momentum.
As Real Madrid coach Pablo Laso said: “Usually coaches are happy when we follow the game plan and we did that. It’s impossible to play a perfect game but we did follow the game plan and I am happy about that. Still, there’s a long way to go”.
Lorenzo Brown with 13 points and eights assists tried his best, Tonye Jekiri also scored 13, however, this was not UNICS’ night.
“Real Madrid broke the game early, they scored a lot of threes and after that, the only question was by how many points we were going to lose, we just have to forget this game”, admitted UNICS coach Velimir Perasovic.
The Russian side with a 12-8 record is now tied between the 6th and the 7th spot of the standings with CSKA Moscow, which they face at home on Friday.