UNICS defeated Pari NN on the road – 100:69 (30:9, 25:24, 20:14, 25:22).
Game progress
Pari Nizhny Novgorod came into the game at 9th place with the 3-game losing streak, while UNICS is battling CSKA for 1st place in the standings. The absence of several players did not prevent the Kazan team from getting off to a strong start. Dyshawn Pierre scored 5 points in a row, Marcus Bingham felt confident in the pain, Dmitry Kulagin and Andrey Lopatin did not miss three-pointers – the guests lead grew with every minute. UNICS ended up winning the first quarter – 30:9. In the second quarter, Pari Nizhny Novgorod stabilized the situation, but it wasn’t enough to revive the intrigue.
The main intrigue in the remaining time was whether the Kazan team would manage to win by 30 points or more to overtake CSKA and regain first place in the standings. In the last minute of the game, UNICS achieved what it wanted!
X-factor
UNICS significantly outperformed its opponent in many areas. One of them was organisation and discipline, which resulted in 23 turnovers by Pari Nizhny Novgorod.
Facts
Rivalry history score: 32-5, UNICS leads. The last time Pari NN had win in March 2023.
Pari NN played at the FOK Meschersky for the first time this season. The last time the team played the VTB League game here on April 1, when Avtodor beat Nizhny – 84:69.
Sergei Kozin’s team now has a streak of 6 home losses. Pari NN’s only win at home was on October 1 against BETCITY PARMA (73-69).
Dmitry Kulagin reached the 1,000 assists in his League career. He became the third player in history to achieve this milestone. Interestingly, Alexey Shved and Dmitrii Khvostov played in today’s game.
Leaders
Pari NN: Hunter Dean (13 + 6 rebounds), Alexander Khomenko (13), Evgenii Baburin (12), Ilya Karpenkov (7 + 8 rebounds)
UNICS: Marcus Bingham (21), Andrey Lopatin (16), Dmitry Kulagin (14), Dyshawn Pierre (10 + 5 rebounds), Alexey Shved (10 + 7 assists), Mikhail Belenitskii (9 + 8 rebounds)
What’s next
Pari NN: December 15 at home versus Avtodor
UNICS: December 16 at home against MBA-MAI.
