EXCHANGE OF OPINIONS:

Rimas Kurtinaitis:

— We had a very tough game on Saturday against Krasnye Krylia, bit I think we had time to recreate. We got used to such schedule and are waiting for the new game with Donetsk. I think it will be tough too. Our opponent needs a victory, and we want to win for secure first place for ourselves. As for Thomas Kelati, he will not participate in the game, cause he is recovering from ankle injury.

Matt Nielsen:

– I suppose it will be a difficult game. At the end of the last week BC Donetsk lost couple of matches in the national championship and I think they will be focused, ready and have double energy with the goal of beating Khimki. We saw that Donetsk is a very talented team with good players. Our opponent will try to do all its best to be the first in group J – they have to score victory over us. But we are concentrated too and look forward to give battle to out vis-a-vis.

BC DONETSK (Donetsk, Ukraine)

Founded in 2006
Team colors: white, black and orange
Arena: Druzhba Palace of Sports (4700 seats)
Honors: Ukrainian 1 Liga winner (2007), Ukrainian Higher League winner (2008), Ukrainian Superleague regular season champion (2011), Ukrainian Superleague finalist (2009, 2011)
Official web-site: bc.donetsk.ua

HISTORY

Basketball already had a long tradition in Donetsk, where Shakhtar had previously reached the Ukrainian League finals and took part in European club competition games throughout the 1990s. In 2006, Valery Plekhanov founded BC Donetsk club and became its first head coach in the Ukrainian third division. Donetsk left no doubt about its power, winning all 34 games that season to achieve promotion to the next level.

Donetsk made its European club competitions debut in 2008-09 but lost against Proteas EKA AEL of Cyprus in the EuroChallenge qualifying round. Back in Ukraine, with Andres Rodriguez, P.J. Tucker and Demetrius Alexander as its stars, Donetsk stormed into the league finals but could not get past Azovmash to the crown. The club returned to the EuroChallenge in 2009-10 but could not survive the first group stage.

Donetsk folded in January 2010, only to reappear last season. An ambitious project was re-launched with Sasa Obradovic as head coach and Luis Flores, Jasmin Hukic, J.K. Edwards and Branko Cvetkovic as the main players. Donetsk delivered from the very beginning and won the regular season with a 37-11 record. The team then swept its playoffs series against Kryvbasbasket and Hoverla to reach the finals against Budivelnik. Despite falling behind 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, Budivelnik ended up rallying to win the title. Although it was left a step away from glory again, that won't prevent Donetsk from remaining ambitious into the future.

SEASON 2011/2012

In Eurocup 2011/2012 regular season BC Donetsk played in Group A, eventually ranked first with 5 wins and 1 loss (to BCM Gravelines). The Ukrainian club entered Eurocup Last-16 Group J with BC Khimki, ARIS BSA 2003 and ASVEL Basket. First two meetings with ASVEL and ARIS BSA were unsuccessful for the Ukrainians – as on the road in France, as at home BC Donetsk scored confident victories. But a week ago it was beaten by BC Khimki. Now Donetsk ranks second (2-1).

BC Donetsk is one of the current Ukrainian Superleague leaders. In national championship after 26 games the club ranks second with 18 wins and 8 losses.

Eurocup

January 31, 2012

BC Khimki — BC Donetsk — 68-55 (17-11, 19-21, 18-12, 14-11)

Khimki: Fridzon (17 + 7 rebounds), Planinic (16 + 6 rebounds), Loncar (14 + 7 rebounds)

Donetsk: Kravtsov (17 + 8 rebounds), Curry (11), Radenovic (10 + 10 rebounds)

PHOTOGALLERY BC KHIMKI vs BC DONETSK

Ukrainian Superleague

February 2, 2012

BC Donetsk — Ferro-ZNTU — 81-91 (25-9, 17-31, 21-25, 18-26)

Donetsk: Curry (15), Jackson (14), Stojanovski (12), Radenovic and Glebov (in 10 each)

February 3, 2012

BC Donetsk — DniproAzot — 73-92 (18-29, 18-18, 18-24, 19-21)

Donetsk: Radenovic (22 + 8 rebounds), Avdalovic (14), Kovalenko (10 + 8 rebounds)

ROSTER

The leaders of the club are foreigners: Americans Ramel Curry (16.1 ppg, 4.1 rbs, 3.0 ast, 1.3 stl), Serbians Ivan Radenovic (10.9 ppg, 5.6 rbs), Vule Avdalovic (10.2 ppg, 3.4 ast) and Ukrainian center Viacheslav Kravtsov (9.3 ppg, 5.0 rbs).

№	Player	Position	Height	Birthday	Nationality
4	Maksym Pustozvonov	F	200	1987	Ukraine
5	Michael Lee	F	207	1986	USA
7	Ramel Curry	G	191	1980	USA
8	Vojdan Stojanovski	G	194	1987	Macedonia
9	Vule Avdalovic	G	189	1981	Serbia
10	Oleksandr Antypov	F	197	1995	Ukraine
11	Oleksandr Lypovyy	G	199	1991	Ukraine
12	Ivan Radenovic	F	208	1984	Serbia
14	Oleg Saltovets	F	202	1977	Ukraine
15	Vitaliy Kovalenko	F	201	1984	Ukraine
21	Dmitro Gliebov	F	198	1988	Ukraine
34	Igor Boyarkin	G	177	1995	Ukraine
41	Darnell Jackson	F	203	1985	USA
55	Viacheslav Kravtsov	C	210	1987	Ukraine
–	Vladlen Berezhnyi	F	197	1995	Ukraine

Head coach: Sasa Obradovic (Serbia)