PARMA Russia defeated Nizhny Novgorod Russia on the road, 88-73 (23-16, 25-21, 16-17, 24-19).
Top Scorers
Nizhny Novgorod: Vadim Panin (16 + 5 reb), Stefan Jelovac (16), Petr Gubanov (11)
PARMA: Tre’ McLean (17), Frank Gaines (16 + 5 ast), Codi Miller-McIntyre (15 + 5 ast + 5 stl)
Story
Both of these teams have playoff aspirations with PARMA seeking a first-ever postseason appearance and Nizhny hoping to return after an underwhelming 2016-17 campaign.
Though many expected a tightly-contested game between two teams that like to score in bunches, PARMA dominated the encounter from start to finish. The visitors shot 44% from beyond the arc and outrebounded Nizhny 35-24 en route to an 88-73 win.
Codi Miller-McIntyre led the way for the visitors, scoring 15 points and adding five assists and five steals.
For Nizhny, 5-25 shooting from downtown was a back-breaker. The offense never got going and Zoran Lukic’s men were unable to contain a confident, hungry PARMA squad.
The turning point came early in the 3rd quarter. Trailing by 11 at halftime, Nizhny scored the first six points of the quarter to pull within five.
But PARMA responded with a Konstantin Bulanov triple and an 11-0 run to put the game out of reach. The home team would not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way, going down to a 15-point defeat.
PARMA improves to 3-7, moving past Nizhny Novgorod into 8th place. The home team falls to 2-6, 10th in the League.
Highlights
. @BC_NN vs. @parmabasket one minute highlights 📹 pic.twitter.com/mYzxBmaBg9
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) December 17, 2017
McLean’s Dunk
Stat
13-29 – PARMA was 12th in the League in 3-point shooting entering the game, but shot 44% in Nizhny to pick up a double-digit win.
Quotes
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Zoran Lukic:
– This was an embarrassing game for us. No discipline, no responsibility, no energy, though I don’t want to use our busy schedule and physical exhaustion as an excuse. We weren’t ready to compete today, even though we knew exactly how to play. PARMA’s three American guards simply destroyed us. Their big man Moreira scored 10 points and only four of them with his post-up game, so you could say our frontcourt did its job today. Our guards brought on a catastrophe. But we’re like a submarine: We’re all headed to the bottom together. This is a very upsetting loss for me.
PARMA head coach Nikolajs Mazurs:
– I want to thank our fans that traveled with us from Perm and supported us. It’s nice to finish the first part of the season with a win on the road, especially since we aren’t very consistent and are still searching for our game. Every game is different, but today we did what we wanted. We expected our opponent would spend a lot of energy defending our drives to the hoops and when they double-teamed, we looked for open shots and set guys up to shoot. That’s why we made so many shots. We’ve already shown in several games that we can shoot the ball, even better than today. In some games we don’t score, but against Nizhny we were organized on defense, grabbed the big rebounds and had a lot of fast-break opportunities.
Up Next
Nizhny Novgorod: January 6 away vs. Nizhny Novgorod
PARMA: January 13 away vs. Avtodor
Photos
Quotes
