CSKA — Uralmash, 21 January 2024

The Tonye Factor

Meetings with the team from Yekaterinburg turn out to be memorable for the red-and-blues. To begin with, the Army Team unexpectedly lost to the newcomers in Krylatskoye in the preseason. Then they fought desperately in the first official game, snatching a fighting victory on the road.

“In the first game it took us plenty of time to adjust, first of all physically, and find a way to beat Uralmash,” recalled CSKA head coach Emil Rajkovic. “This team plays tough, they run the floor and crash the boards, so this is the first factor that we need to take care of. We practice well, we going back to playing rhythm and we will do our best to please the fans in Megasport.”

03-Nov-2023. Uralmash - CSKA: 73-86 (+13)

Despite the enviable successes of Amath M'Baye (20 points) and Livio Jean-Charles (26 points), the hosts controlled the game for more than half the game. Emil Rajkovic changed the game by taking the risk of sending Tonye Jekiri, who was recovering from an injury, onto the floor for the first time during the third quarter. The center played a short segment, but took four rebounds on the opponent’s backboard and set his teammates the required level of toughness, which was maintained until the last minutes.

With a new coach

Much has changed since then. First of all, at the staff of the rivals, where the Belarusian specialist Rostislav Vergun took the head coaching reigns from Milos Pavicevic. Since then, the team has won three out of four games in the VTB League and confidently defeated Lokomotiv-Kuban in the Russian Cup.

The Urals' main weapon remains the foreign players, primarily center Octavius Ellis (18.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.4 blocked shots).

Brief dossier

Uralmash Ekaterinburg
Founded: 1960
Colors: orange, black, green
Home arena: Palace of Team Sports (5,000)
President: Viktor Ganienko
Head coach: Rostislav Vergun
Website: bcuralmash.ru
Trophy case: 2-time SuperLeague champion (2022, 2023), SuperLeague vice-champion (2021), SuperLeague-2 bronze winner (2018), SuperLeague-3 champion (2017)