Samara beat Pari Nizhny Novgorod on the road – 90:52 (19:15, 24:8, 25:11, 22:18).
The best scorers
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Aleksandr Chadov (10), Aleksandr Gankevich (6 + 6 rebounds).
Samara: James Ennis (18), Malcolm Thomas (17 + 7 rebounds), Marcos Knight (16 points + 5 rebounds), Anton Kardanakhishvili (10), Yuri Umrikhin (7 + 5 assists).
Game process
Pari Nizhny Novgorod started with two road wins (Enisey, Avtodor), and then lost to UNICS at home. The newcomers from Samara started with losses from CSKA and Loko, but in the last round they won their first game in the VTB League – over Enisey in overtime. The Volga derby started equally. Samara aimed at a quick transition, made several fastbreaks at the end of the first quarter and got a lead, but Aleksandr Chadov made a three-pointer just before the buzzer (15:19).
At the beginning of the second quarter, Jermaine Love made two free-throws and soon Ivan Strebkov scored a three-pointer. Nizhny Novgorod fans had to wait for the next made shot of their team for 8 minutes. The game completely gone wrong for NN – first of all in offense. By the halftime, Nizhny Novgorod players had made 29.6% from the game (20% 3-pointers) and 55.6% from the line. They lost in rebounds – 12-24. The Samara team, led by Marcos Knight and James Ennis helped to make a 19:0 run. After 20 minutes, the guests were up by 20 points(43:23).
The key moment
The third quarter began with Ennis three-pointer and Malcolm Thomas made shot. Nizhny tried to reply, but it was not enough to come back. Soon the hosts had another offensive problem – Aleksandr Gankevich and Evgeniy Baburin made 2 turnovers in 14 seconds, Samara immediately punished for it (54:29). It became clear that it would not be possible to make a comeback. In the remaining time, Sergey Bazarevich team only increased the lead and eventually defeated NN – 90:52.
Hero
Marcos Knight. Samara will make its debut in the League with a strong squad that lacks teamwork at the start of the season. An experienced Knight in today’s game acted as a link the actions of the team on the court and shows leadership qualities, motivating teammates. If we talk about the game, Knight was especially effective in offense and scoring points, as well as rebounding – 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Numbers
38 – even the most optimistic Samara fans did not expect such a difference from the first game of the Volga teams in Nizhny Novgorod.
What’s next
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: road game versus Astana on October 23
Samara: home game against Zenit on October 24
