Nizhny Run Riot To End Winless Run

Serbian guard Nemanja Protic led BC NN to their first win in the Last 16 with a season-high 28 points

Nizhny Novrogod won the battle at the bottom of Group K as they used a huge first quarter to beat BK Pardubice 86-65.

With nothing but pride on the line, Nizhny exploded out of the blocks, scoring the first 14 points unanswered and taking a 25-2 lead when Artem Yakovenko sank a jump-shot with a minute remaining in the first quarter.

Pardubice were shell-shocked but did at least find a little rhythm early in the second quarter, with a three-pointer from Michal Carnecky making it 35-12 midway through the period.

They continued to chip away at the lead, and Zbynek Pospisil had the last word in the second half to make it 39-23.

However, the hosts were able to pull clear once more early in the second half, and their advantage was back to 25, 60-35, when Ivan Paunic broke away for a lay-up midway through the quarter.

The gap hovered at around 20 points for the rest of the game as Nizhny eased their way home.

Nemanja Protic led Nizhny with 28 points while Paunic added 14 and Yakovenko 11 points with seven rebounds and four assists.

Petr Bohacik led Pardubice with 22 points.

The victory means Nizhny claim a victory in the group with their last chance.

Quotes BC NN vs. BK Pardubice

BC JIP Pardubice Head Coach Jan Slowiak
"The most important thing is that we lost the first quarter. We lost about 22 points, we didn't show any energy, we failed in defense. After this, we started to play better but anyway the game was lost for us. BC NN showed more energy and their game was like a performance for the audience."

BC NN Head Coach Zoran Lukic
"This game was important for us first of all from the psychological point of view. The result will not affect the standings, both teams already lost their chances to get into the next stage of Eurochallenge. But it's always better to win than to lose. My team showed a game of a very good quality tonight. From the first quarter we seized the initiative although at the end of the match we made the same mistakes that we already made in the game against Besiktas. If the difference wasn't so big, we could be punished for it. Nevertheless, we won, and our victory was really a landslide. I hope our fans were satisfied with this game, especially because they couldn't see away matches of our team against Besiktas and Astana."

BC JIP Pardubice player Hermann Opoku
"We started the game in a very bad way. We didn't have enough energy. We tried to play hard and to come back to the game but our opponents were stronger. They did a very good job in offense and defense as well."

BC NN player Artem Yakovenko
"I'm glad that we won with a good score. It was a very good game, and we are pleased
to complete our participation in Eurochallenge with a victory. Remembering this group stage, it remains unfortunate that we lost the previous games although we were very close to win some matches. But, hopefully, the last meeting smoothed impressions of past failures. Today we wanted not to give the opponent any chance to win and we fought from the beginning till the end."