By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Nizhny Novgorod joined the Basketball Champions League in 2017 although they failed to get past the second qualifying round that year. They made a big step further last season by not only qualifying for the regular season but reaching the quarterfinals.
Interestingly, both times they got eliminated it was against Telenet Giants Antwerp who won third place in the 2018-19 BCL campaign. Nizhny seems on the same pace this year as they hold a 6-3 record in Group C together with Peristeri winmasters (6-3) while Brose Bamberg (4-5) is on the chase to ruin their plans.
However, Nizhny is in a pretty good spot as not only is it in front of Peristeri and Brose but also holds the tiebreaker advantage against the latter and will play their rematch against Peristeri on Gameday 11 at home (won the first game 74-71).
Oh, and the good news is also that, this time around, there’s little to no chance that they will meet Antwerp as the Belgian squad stands at a 2-7 record in Group B, at the very least three wins behind the playoff spot. Not that it would matter much to the Russian team which showed lots of character this year, breaking the odds and bouncing back from tough spots multiple times.
Sticking together in the toughest of times
One of those tough spots lasted for three weeks in November when the squad lost six straight games in all competitions. But they ‘dug deep inside’ and found what they need. The result was winning four out of their last five games and all of them went down to the wire, ending within a five-point margin.
The turnaround started with an 80-78 home win over Riga in BCL when Brandon Brown went clutch nailing 13 points in the fourth quarter. He was also the main force behind Nizhny ruining Tenerife’s perfect 7-0 score with 26 points on 9-13 shooting while adding five assists, four steals and two rebounds.
As if beating the title-contending team with the best record in the competition wasn’t enough, Nizhny secured tiebreaker advantage against Brose this week by finishing the game on an 11-0 run to grab a one-point win (76-75). Team with character indeed.
“The atmosphere here, it is such a family-type environment, that’s one thing that I appreciate about this club the most. On the professional level, you don’t always get this family environment and it’s not on purpose necessarily. For example, we hit a rough patch in November but we found solidarity and we felt that we can depend on each other, that is a thing I really, really liked”, Brown said after earning Gameday 8 MVP honors.
American duo leading a deep squad
Brown is the squad’s leading scorer in BCL with 14.7 points on average while also logging team-high 5.6 assists and two steals per game. He also proved to be more than capable to take over the game in crunch time but far from it that he’s alone in this endeavor.
Darral Willis is right behind him with 14.3 points per game in BCL while also grabbing 8.1 rebounds. He logged a double-double twice so far and when he partners up with Brown (who also logged a double-double this season) for the pick ‘n’ roll play… well, the defenses tend to get ‘dismantled’. And often in a quite attractive fashion.
The American duo is without a doubt leading the team but it doesn’t necessarily all have to fall on their shoulders. Anton Astapkovich was, for example, the one to bank seven points down the stretch in the comeback win over Brose while also adding a crucial steal and block.
Pavel Antipov, Alexander Gankevich, Ivan Strebkov, and Evgenii Baburin also stepped up to the occasions with their energy, experience or both. And not only them. The mastermind behind it all – coach Zoran Lukic.