UNICS Kazan defeated Nizhny Novgorod at home in Game 1, 84-66 (25-15, 16-11, 26-29, 17-11).
Top Scorers
UNICS: Melvin Ejim (16 + 7 reb), Evgeny Kolesnikov (16 + 6 reb), Quino Colom (9 + 5 ast)
Nizhny Novgorod: Stevan Jelovac (14 + 5 reb), Maxim Grigoryev (12), Petr Gubanov (10)
Story
UNICS held the visitors to 26 points in the first half en route to a dominant 18-point win in Game 1 of the quarterfinals. The home team was led by 16 points each from Melvin Ejim and Evgeny Kolesnikov and lights-out three-point shooting in the 3rd quarter to take down Nizhny Novgorod.
Despite averaging more than nine 3-pointers a game in the regular season, Nizhny shot only 3-22 from beyond the arc on Wednesday, a measly 13%.
Trailing by 15 at halftime, Nizhny Novgorod mounted a furious 3rd-quarter rally behind nine points from Stevan Jelovac to cut the deficit to two, 47-45.
UNICS responded with five triples in the final five minutes of the period to go back in front by 12, 67-55.
Kazan went on to score the first eight points of the 4th, putting the game out of reach for the underdog visitors.
The series now moves to Nizhny Novgorod, where the seven seed will try to do some damage in Games 2 and 3.
Block Party
Какой ДАНК от Стефана Ласме 😲
What a SLAM by Stephane @Slasme 😲 pic.twitter.com/BCvN8PSvuw
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) May 23, 2018
Stat
13% – Nizhny never had a chance shooting 3-22 from beyond the arc, including a combined 0-9 performance from Jelovac, Gubanov and Strebkov.
Game 2
Saturday, May 26 at 7:15 PM (7:15 MSK)
Images of the Game
