Pari Nizhny Novgorod defeated MINSK at home – 74:61 (16:16, 24:18, 14:15, 20:12).
Game progress
MINSK started the game very confident with a 9:2 run. Nizhny Novgorod managed to stabilize the game with three-pointers and by the middle of the second quarter had an impressive lead – 29:18. Nevertheless, Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson and Zach Smith helped to get small deficit by the halftime – 40:34.
Zoran Lukic team started the second half with scoring drought: Nizhny couldn’t score a single point for 5 minutes. During this time, the guests took the lead – 41:40. Kendall Smith took the lead for the hosts and scored in several possessions in a row. By the final quarter the Volga team still led, but the difference allowed MINSK to hope for a tough ending – 54:49.
Key moment
At the start of the final quarter, Grigory Motovilov cut Nizhny lead to 3 points, but the guests couldn’t do more. Smith and Ivan Strebkov started 12:2 run, and after Strebkov long-range shot the difference reached the maximum 13 points. MINSK only managed to avoid a huge loss.
The Volga team equalized with MBA in wins and moved closer to 4-5 places in Group B.
X-Factor
Kendall Smith repeated his United League career-high and became the highest scorer of the game. Most importantly, he helped Nizhny turn around a poor start of the second half and was had a made a key contribution in the fourth quarter.
Fact
Nizhny allows opponents to score less in Group B along with MBA – 78.6 points. In today’s game, the Volga team proved to be one of the best defensive team: 61 allowed points is their third best defensive performance this season (the season-high is 59 points against Runa). Nizhny has not allowed an opponent to reach 70 points for the 8th time this season.
Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson became the 7th player in League history to reach 600 points scored in a single season. After the game against Nizhny, the guard has 612 points.
Zach Smith set a career-high 21 points and also made his second double-double in 4 games.
Andrey Vorontsevich set new season-high in blocks (4).
Leaders
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Kendall Smith (21 + 5 rebounds + 3 steals), Aleksandr Gankevich (14), Andrey Vorontsevich (12 + 4 block-shots).
MINSK: Zach Smith (21 + 14 rebounds), Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson (17 + 5 assists)
What’s next
Pari Nizhny Novgorod (11-22): March 24 on the road against Samara
MINSK (0-33): March 24 at home versus Runa.
