The opponents did not enter the match with optimal lineups - already upon arrival in Nizhny Novgorod, Timofey Yakushin felt unwell, and Dmitry Khvostov and Sergei Zotkin did not take part in the host team. At the start of the meeting, the defense of both Paris NN and MBA was clearly stronger than the attack - in almost five minutes the teams had only two points. Then the rate of fire increased somewhat, but it was not possible to escape from a draw until the end of the first quarter.
The second ten minutes passed with a noticeable advantage for the red and white - a 14-2 spurt clearly evidenced this. MBA played aggressively and by the end of the first half, Casey Shepherd had three fouls and Ivan Strebkov had four. The Muscovites themselves very evenly “scattered” six violations among six people. The hosts scored only 6 points in the second period, and our guys went to the locker room with the score 34:21 in their favor.
After a long break, “+13” very quickly turned into “+18”, and then just as quickly returned back to where the second half began. The quarter was again not the most productive - it seemed that the teams made mistakes much more often than they scored points. True, even in such a situation, MBA looked a little better, and at the end of half an hour of play the handicap was already 21 points.
In the final ten minutes, Nizhny tried to return to the game as much as possible given such a lag. Several times the hosts reduced the difference to 17 points, but never got any closer. MBA wins its tightest victory in the VTB United League and beats Paris NN for the fourth time on its floor. The final score is 68:50.
