Pari Nizhny Novgorod defeated Samara at home – 92:72 (23:21, 23:20, 25:15, 24:16).
Game progress
At the start of the game, Ilia Popov and Anton Kardanakhishvili responded to 3 consecutive long-range shots by Zach Nutall with drives in the paint. The guests struggled to handle the hosts oversized roster in the paint, but made up for it with aggressive defense, so the first quarter was equal. In the middle of the second quarter, Nizhny Novgorod managed to organize a run and Nutall three-pointer gave Pari NN a double-digit lead – 41:31. But Drazen Anzulovic timeout and back-to-back long-range shots helped Samara to cut the deficit in half by halftime – 46:41.
Key moment
The second half started with another 13:3 run by the hosts, which resulted in another double-digit score difference. Samara finished most of possessions with difficult shots, Kardanakhishvili actions didn’t help the guests to start a comeback. Nizhny Novgorod won rebounds and continued to find Nutall wide open. These factors allowed Sergey Kozin team to increase the lead to 20 points and confidently win.
X-factor
An important reason for Nizhny Novgorod win was rebounding advantage. The hosts collected 46 rebounds compared to only 26 by the opponent, and also had more offensive rebounds (16 vs. 8).
Facts
Samara roster for this game included only Russian players. The Volga team became the third club in League history to play a game with a fully Russian lineup. The other 2 teams with a similar achievement are MBA-MAI and Krasnye Krylia.
Zach Nutall became the 5th player to make 7 or more three-pointers this season. Another Nizhny Novgorod player is on this list – Evgenii Baburin, who also scored 7 long-range shots against Zenit.
Viktor Kashin and Nikita Kosyakov scored their first VTB League points, Danila Chikarev had his best scoring game of the season (8 points), and Anton Kardanakhishvili had season-high 22 points.
Leaders
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Zach Natale (27), Alexander Khomenko (18 + 12 rebounds).
Samara: Anton Kardanakhishvili (22 + 7 assists + 5 rebounds), Ilya Popov (17 + 5 rebounds).
What’s next
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: December 15 on the road against UNICS.
Samara: December 14 on the road versus Avtodor.
