UNICS beat Nizhny Novgorod on the road – 91:66 (22:16, 29:13, 24:21, 16:16).
Top scorers
Nizhny Novgorod: Kasey Shepherd (14 + 6 assists), Evgenii Baburin (14), Artem Komolov (11).
UNICS: John Brown (24 + 6 rebounds), Isaiah Canaan (16), Jamar Smith (11).
Story
Nizhny Novgorod (6-4) approached this derby with a streak of three defeats. UNICS (9-4) won their last four meetings and moved up to 3rd place. The opening quarter went roughly as expected – in an equal fight. As part of the Kazan team, John Brown, who is in excellent shape, scored 7 points, which allowed the guests to create a small gap – 22:16.
The game changed completely in the second 10-minute. White-greens, who conceded only 68.8 points on average in the last six games taking into account EuroCup, showed their maximum in defense. UNICS did not allow the opponent to hit their rim for six and a half minutes. During this time, the guests made a breakthrough 21-0 and went to the big break with the score 51:29.
💥 UNICS runs 21-0 in 2nd Q vs Nizhny Novgorod! pic.twitter.com/19BzwLuCTz
— VTB League (@VTBUL) January 23, 2021
Kazan did not stop even with 2 out of 10 from beyond the arc in the first half. The double-digit advantage of Tatarstan in rebounds and in assists, 70% of the 2-point scoring, as well as the score on the scoreboard spoke of the dominance of Dimitrios Priftis’s team.
Nizhny failed to organize a pursuit after the change of sides. UNICS played 3 more points in the third quarter and in the last 10 minutes controlled the game. The fifth victory in a row allowed the Kazan team to catch up with CSKA (10-2) in this indicator and strengthen their position in the Top-3.
Hero
John Brown III. In 25 minutes, the forward scored 24 points – a career-high in the League – as well as 6 rebounds with 11 out of 17 from the field.
Stat
21 – the number of unanswered points scored by UNICS in the second quarter. This run was the key moment of the game.
Comments
UNICS head coach Dimitrios Priftis:
– Today I am happy not so much with the victory as with the fact that we were able to demonstrate the correct attitude to the game and character. The reason is very simple. Every year I tell almost the same idea: I have great respect for Nizhny Novgorod. We take confrontations with this team as seriously as possible and carefully preparing to them. Nizhny Novgorod has a special culture. The club helps young players to develop, and, as you know, I quite often invite basketball players from this project, with whom my friend Zoran Lukic worked.
As for the game, today we demonstrated a good game in defense, moved the ball with the required pace, were aggressive. It was thanks to the defense that we were able to create a gap for ourselves. We will try to keep the pace, and I wish Nizhny Novgorod a lot of success in the rest of the season.
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Zoran Lukic:
– It’s hard to comment on a game when you lost with such a difference. Even before the game against UNICS, I said that I was impressed with how good our opponent looked in the last EuroCup game against Gran Canaria. Today they repeated their success, but with us. I sincerely wish them to become EuroCup champions this season. They have an excellent coach who has established communication with the players, they have the right chemistry in their team. Today they showed real energy and a desire to win, unlike some of my players.
Again, I would like to highlight Artem Komolov, who knocked out his finger in the first quarter and still finished the game. Baburin also honestly gave his maximum.
Our club has a motto “Your faith is our strength”. Now only faith remains, the strength is gone. Of course, in the near future we will try to bring the team back to normal, but with such limited rotation it will be difficult to do this.
Next
Nizhny Novgorod: February 2 @ Zenit
UNICS: January 30 @ Tsmoki-Minsk
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