Nizhny Novgorod Russia defeated Tsmoki-Minsk Belarus on the road, 78-70 (20-22, 23-12, 15-15, 20-21).
Top Scorers
Tsmoki-Minsk: Chris Czerapowicz (21 + 5 reb), Devon Saddler (15)
Nizhny Novgorod: Stevan Jelovac (23 + 9 reb), Jake Odum (22 + 5 reb + 6 ast), Petr Gubanov (10 + 7 reb)
Story
Stevan Jelovac continued his MVP campaign, posting 23 points and nine rebounds, to help Nizhny Novgorod secure its sixth win of the season in Belarus, 78-70. The visitors followed up last week’s buzzer-beating win over Astana with a second-straight victory vs. a fellow playoff hopeful, leapfrogging into 7th place and one of the final two postseason spots.
Nizhny used a 14-3 run at the beginning of the 2nd quarter to take control of the game. 24-year-old Russian guard Artem Komolov, the hero vs. Astana, scored his only five points of the game during the run, tying the game at 22-22 on a layup, before pushing the lead to eight, 30-22, with a triple.
Remarkably, Tsmoki-Minsk never got closer than five points the rest of the way. The two teams traded baskets as the Nizhny lead hovered between 8-10 points for much of the contest.
The home team did close to within five, 75-70, on Devon Saddler’s three with 1:40 remaining, but Jake Odum responded with a layup at the other end and Minsk committed multiple turnovers down the stretch to ensure a Nizhny win.
Six teams in the League now have six wins (Nizhny Novgorod, PARMA, Tsmoki-Minsk, Astana, VEF, Kalev) with less than two months remaining and two postseason spots in play.
Stat
1 – Stevan Jelovac leads the VTB United League in efficiency rating at 20.4, while ranking 3rd in points (20.6) and 8th in rebounds (6.3). The Serbian forward knocked down two triples and shot 11-11 from the line to help Nizhny Novgorod record a valuable victory.
Quotes
Tsmoki-Minsk Alexander Krutikov:
– We gave the lead away too easily today. We had a decent 1st quarter. I gave more time to the bench players today. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a feel for the game and gave our opponent an opportunity to take a big lead. Nine points is a lot for this type of game. Give them credit, our opponent played very well today, especially on defense. It’s not easy for us to play against such focused defense. We tried to get back in the game, but weren’t very confident at the line, unfortunately.
After exiting the FIBA Cup, we need to be ready for big breaks in the schedule and prepare to be very focused for such important games.
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Zoran Lukic:
– I want to congratulate my team on this important win. We lost the first game to Tsmoki at home in very disappointing fashion and needed to bounce back from the loss. The 2nd quarter was key. We had the right type of defense. We only let our opponent score 70 points. It’s too bad that on the final possession, which we earned through good defense, we weren’t able to hit our final shot. The point differential could be an important tiebreaker at the end of the season.
Up Next
Tsmoki-Minsk: April 8 away vs. Kalev
Nizhny Novgorod: April 1 away vs. VEF
