Unics to Face Barcelona in Euroleague Quarterfinal

Russian Euroleague debutant Unics Kazan set up a quarterfinal clash with powerhouse Barcelona after scraping through a tight Top 16 group thanks to a result elsewhere. Unics lost its last group match Wednesday to reigning champions Panathinaikos 68-63, but advances courtesy of Olimpia Milano's 85-72 defeat of Fenerbahce, the only team that could have denied the Russians qualification. The Unics players did not know about the decisive Fenerbahce result until the end of their game with Panathinaikos, Unics point guard Lynn Greer told RIA Novosti on Thursday. “Only when the siren went, the coaches said that the Italians beat Fenerbahce. We didn’t want to depend on the result of that match, we wanted to win and guarantee our place in the quarterfinals by ourselves,” Greer said. Unics lost twice to Barcelona in the regular season, 65-93 at home and 63-50 in Spain as the Catalans qualified with ease. Greer said Unics can buck the trend this time around when the best-of-five series starts later this month. “Barcelona is a beatable team. Yes, we lost to them in both games, but in Spain Unics didn’t play badly. If we play with that same confidence, then we’ll reach the Final Four.” Reaching the quarterfinals was a remarkable result for Unics in their first Euroleague season, Unics coach Evgeny Pashutin said. “We lost, though we qualified to the Top 8. This is an achievement indeed, but we don’t want to stop yet. We will prepare for the coming games and we are looking forward to playing Barcelona,” Pashutin said on the Euroleague website.