Pardubice Beat BC NN To Stay In The Hunt

Pardubice center Marcus Arnold posted his third double-double of the season with a mirrored 15 points and 15 rebounds

BK Pardubice stayed in the hunt for the EuroChallenge Quarter-Finals by grinding out an 87-80 home triumph over BC Nizhny Novgorod.

Both sides had lost their first two games in the Last 16 against Besiktas and Fuenlabrada, and needed to win to have a realistic chance of moving on in the competition from Group K.

With 7:49 to go, BC NN's Russia international Semen Antonov made a pair of free-throws to cut the Pardubice lead to 66-65.

Pardubice then went to the line on their next two possessions and made three of four attempts before Marcus Arnold scored with a lay-up for a 71-65 advantage.

Corey Muirhead followed with four more consecutive free-throws for the hosts to finish a run that left Pardubice on top, 75-65.

BC NN got no closer than five points the rest of the way.

Pardubice finished 32 of 37 at the line, with Maurice Hampton (19 points) seven of eight and Muirhead 13 of 16.

Muirhead had 20 points and eight rebounds while Arnold had a game-high 15 boards to go with his 15 points.

BC NN were led by Michal Ignerski's game-high 28 points.

The Czechs out-rebounded BC NN 36-27.

Quotes BK JIP Pardubice vs. BC Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod Head Coach Zoran Lukic
"I want to congratulate our opponent. They deserved to win this game. The biggest problem in our game today was the defence, and we lost concentration offensively. Especially when we missed 10 or 12 open shots in the penetration. We tried to punish this defence when they switched all the pick n rolls, and basically we found very good solutions, but when you miss this many shots one on zero it is very difficult to win the game."

BK JIP Pardubice Head Coach Jan Slowiak
"I want to thank my players. We showed a lot of will to win the game again. We were able to win the rebounding battles and that was the key to this game. Against a physical opponent like this, that is a great success. We were having troubles for a while to stop their best player, Ignerski, although we were preparing for him. But he hit some tough shots as well. We were able to play through a small crisis in the third quarter and we controlled the end of the game. We were able to draw fouls and make free throws when needed and I have to thank the players again. Also we played without our point guards again and this is why this win is really well deserved."

Nizhny Novgorod player Michal Ignerski
"There is not much to add to what the coach said. We had a few loose balls in the fourth quarter and we should have grabbed them. Also some bad decisions when we were supposed to score closer to the basket. Those few mistakes decided the game."

BK JIP Pardubice player Marcus Arnold
"I think we played a good game. In the first half Ignerski was having a good game. He had 17 in the first half. In the second half we did a better job of playing defence on him and that helped us because he was their offensive force. I think we played really fast and that really helped our game too."