Nizhny Novgorod Russia defeated Kalev Estonia at home, 103-85 (18-10, 34-22, 29-22, 22-31).
Top Scorers
Nizhny Novgorod: Petr Gubanov (20), Jake Odum (17 + 5 reb + 7 ast), Stevan Jelovac (16 + 8 reb), Alexander Zakharov (13), Artem Komolov (13)
Kalev: Isaiah Briscoe (29), Kristjan Kangur (10 + 5 reb)
Story
Nizhny Novgorod shot 64% from the field and enjoyed an electric debut from point guard Jake Odum to demolish visiting Kalev, 103-85.
The home team dominated from the opening tip, racing to a 12-0 lead. Kalev didn’t score until the 3:49 mark, when Isaiah Briscoe got a jumper to fall.
Nizhny’s advantage ballooned to 20 in the 2nd quarter. Petr Gubanov, who finished with a team-high 20 points, scored 13 in the period to help his team to a 52-32 edge at halftime.
Kalev never threatened in the second half. Despite 29 points from Briscoe, the visitors couldn’t contain hot-shooting Nizhny, giving up a combined 63 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
Jake Odum, recently signed for Banvit, helped put the game away. He scored eight in the 3rd quarter as Nizhny went up by 27 and finished with 17 points to go with five rebounds and seven assists.
Zoran Lukic’s club had six players in double digits and scored more than 100 points for the first time this season to improve to 2-4. Kalev drops to 1-6.
Highlights
. @BC_NN vs. @BC_Kalev one minute highlights📹 pic.twitter.com/IYJ2ApaGQ2
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) November 19, 2017
Stat
14 – Nizhny knocked down 14 of 24 3-pointers, a 58% average. The team is averaging only 35.5% from beyond the arc on the season.
Quotes
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Zoran Lukic:
– The win over Kalev was huge for us, especially after a bad game vs. Tsmoki-Minsk. If we could have convinced Jake Odum to join our team over the summer, perhaps some of our results would have been different. But hindsight is always 20/20! He clearly helped us today, even though he’s only had two practices. I’m grateful to most of the players today, even though I really didn’t like the 4th quarter. We were supposed to give up 75 points, defend well, stay focused on offense, but we made a lot of mistakes. Either way, I don’t want the ending to cloud the emotions from the win, but as a coach I don’t like it.
Kalev head coach Alar Varrak:
– Congratulations to Nizhny Novgorod on the win. They did a good job of preparing to play us and knew our strengths and weaknesses. And, of course, their shooting percentage was outstanding today. We went five and a half minutes without scoring. That’s simply unacceptable, no matter how good the opponent is. After that start, Nizhny was confident and made practically every three-point shot. We tried to switch tactics, but nothing worked. It was Nizhny’s day.
Up Next
Nizhny Novgorod: December 2 away vs. Avtodor
Kalev: December 4 away vs. CSKA
Snapshot
