This weekend, Khmelnytsky will host the Final Four of the AYBL Championship among boys born in 2010.
Prometey from Slobozhanske is one of the teams aiming for the Final Four. The team's head coach Ruslan Orishchuk told the FBU press service how he assesses this season for his squad and highlighted the team's advantage over rivals in decisive matches.
Prometey is approaching the Final Four with 8 wins in 9 games - the only defeat was inflicted by the reigning champion, Uzhhorod SCYSS, at their home arena 78:141.
‘Not all 99% are satisfied with the season, because there is a team from Uzhhorod that beat us. This is our only defeat. We will play derby against Dnipro in the semi-final. However, we did not play against them in the VUBL. We played friendly games against them with different results. Similar teams with the similar chances, so I'm expecting a very exciting semi-final.
Last year we played against Dnipro in the semi-finals and lost by 6 points. This year we have a task to correct the mistake of the previous season, to beat Dnipro and reach the final against Uzhhorod. There, if we manage to reach the final, we will at least have to give SCYSS a fight. When we played against them in Uzhhorod, we seemed to cope at the beginning, but then we couldn't withstand their pressure, started making mistakes and lost,’ says Ruslan Orishchuk.
Speaking about the team's play style, Ruslan Orishchuk emphasises that his players try to play fast, offensive basketball - in their winning matches, Prometey scored at least 81 points, scoring 100 or more points three times. And even when we lost to SCYSS, the team scored 78 points.
‘In positional basketball, we involve the centres more, give them opportunities to prove themselves. But mostly, we try to play fast-paced basketball, we play combinations. The main task for the kids is to break away, so the score shows it – up to 100 points. Although there is no such thing as beating everyone, if we see that the opponent is much weaker, we start to fulfil our tasks.’
The team's leaders are Rodion Tymchenko (17.4 points, 17.8 rebounds, 5.4 blocked shots) and Makar Konovnitsyn (18.1 points, 15.4 rebounds).
‘I think, in terms of player selection, we have the best team in this age group. We have a guy with a height of 202 cm - team captain Rodion Tymchenko. Last season, he just took up basketball, but he catches everything immediately, has a good IQ, understands what is required of him.
Makar Konovnitsyn - he is 198 cm, he is technical, maybe a little underweight. But he is one of those players who can decide the outcome of a game or turn the tide. These are our two bigs, which is our advantage. Uzhhorod has no bigs, Dnipro has them, but they are of lower quality.
We have one good legionnaire, Nikita Topchiy, who comes from Kropyvnytskyi. He plays with us in games, but he is also a good player. The rest are my students.’
The team's captain Rodion Timchenko spoke about the team's attitude on the eve of the Final 4: ‘We've been working hard on ourselves throughout the basketball season, and now we have to prove that we really deserve the reward. We have a close-knit and friendly team, we constantly communicate off the court, and this helps us a lot in games.’
Prometey will play their semi-final match on Saturday, 11 May, against the SCYSSORN5 team from Dnipro. The match starts at 13:00.
