The memorial tournament in commemoration of Oleg Berestnev in 2013 was held for the 14-th time. Oleg was one of the first masters of sports in basketball in Nikolaev and a great person. Many famous athletes said it was honor to play with him. One of sport’s most magnetic and charming personalities, O.Berestnev made a prominent contribution to the development of basketball. His sports achievements had a tremendous impact on fans and friends. Now the memorial tournament promotes the virtues of fair play and friendship. Four teams participated in the tournament – AMICO (Nikolaev), Odessa team, Dnepropetrovsk team and the national team of Ukraine 65+. The tournament matches were played at the Nadezhda Sport Hall. Arena is the best sport building in Nikolaev and is the host venue for The Ukrainian Basketball Superleague games.

        On June 21 the first tournament game AMICO vs Dneprobasket was held. Four masters of sports of USSR played at the court in the AMICO line-up therefore nobody doubted in the victory of hosts. In the first period AMICO players A.Petrov, A.Berezhinskiy, S.Smagin, V.Gamov and I.Skurlov dropped 23 points while Dneprobasket responded with 14 points.

 Dneprobasket won the second quarter 13 :11 and impressed basketball fans with two three-pointers. But the hosts had a 34 : 27 advantage at the halftime.

 In the third period Dneprobasket trailed by 4 points 11 :15.In the fourth term Dneprobasket enforced their will and made a 26 : 20 run but could not avoid the defeat 53 : 69. A.Berezhinskiy provided 26 points and A.Petrov produced 16 points for the winners. Tarasov answered with 19 points while Demchenko scored 12 points for the losing side.

 In the second official game the national team of Ukraine 65+ competed with Odessa team.

Odessa team trailed during first, second and third periods. Only in the last quarter they showed some life and won this period. The national team of Ukraine 65+ registered the victory 39 : 33.  The national team was led by Sidorenko with 12 points and Datsyuk with 10 points. Odessa’s prime performers Yurin and Skadovskiy finished the game with 15 and 12 points respectively.

  The second day of competition was rich in official events: parade in honor of the veteran’s contest opening with joining all the tournament participants and a friendly buffet reception in    O.Berestnev's memory. It created a great atmosphere for the tournament.

 On June 22 at 9.30 am the match between AMICO and Odessa team began. During the first half the rivals competed in variable success strife with AMICO advantage 12:11 in the first period and 13 : 8 in the second. In the third quarter AMICO started with a quick run and Odessa team could not stop them anytime. AMICO ended the game 60 : 40. A.Petrov scored more than half of AMICO’s points (33 of 60). Skadovskiy produced 14 points, Sevasteev delivered 9 points and Logishev added 7 points for the guests.

 After that there was the game:  the national team of Ukraine 65+ vs Dneprobasket. In the first half Dneprobasket’s more younger players built the lead 18 : 17. In the second half Dnepr forced more aggressive offensive and extended the gap to 40 : 32. Vedeneev brought 9 points while Vasilenko and Sidorenko added 6 points each for the national team of Ukraine 65+. Dneprobasket’s scorers notched almost equally points each. 
 

 On June 23 Dneprobasket played against Odessa team. In the first and in the third periods Odessa team showed the worthy resistance to the Dneprobasket – 9 : 8 and 8 : 12. But in the second and in the fourth quarters Dneprobasket went ahead by 23 points – 40 : 17 and beat Odessa 57 : 37. Yurin led Odessa team with 12 points and Skadovskiy got 10 points. Kovtun collected 18 points, Krivokonev brought 15 points and Cherniy contributed with 10 points for winners.

  In the final game of the tournament AMICO and the national team of Ukraine 65+ met among themselves. The national team of Ukraine 65+ was strengthened by master of sports                        A.Berezhinskiy fifty years old that gave to the game a certain intrigue. After three periods AMICO led 51 : 41. In the fourth term Berezhinskiy, Datsyuk and Sidorenko began to reduce the margin. But the game ended 59:56 in favor of AMICO.

         As well as it was supposed, AMICO won the first place, Dneprobasket got the second place, the national team of Ukraine 65+ took the third place, Odessa team – the fourth place.   Foto