Minsk residents are going to Nizhny Novgorod, where they will play a VTB United League match against Zoran Lukic's team on March 20. Read more about the meeting in the preview.
Season 2023/24
In the standings of the second stage in group B, Nizhny Novgorod placed on the 7th line: the team has 10 wins in 32 matches. Zoran Lukic's wards have defeated twice in the last 6 games of the second stage Astana and turned out to be stronger than Runa, but lost to Uralmash, Avtodor and MBA.
Since the last meeting between Minsk and Pari Nizhny Novgorod, point guard Glenn Causey, defender Bryon Allen and forward Dragan Apic have left the opposing team in winter. They were replaced by former MINSK player Uladzislau Bliznyuk, familiar to Belarusian fans (on loan from Loko until the end of the current season) and attacking defender Kendall Smith. In the 2023/24 season, Kendall played for the Greek PAOK in the national championship, where he participated in 7 games. On average, the defender scored 10.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 26 minutes. As a member of Paris NN, Smith managed to take part in 4 games with average stats of 10.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists in 17.34 minutes on the floor.
Last week, Nizhny Novgorod residents left a lot of strength in the “Final Four” of the Winline Cup of Russia, where they won silver medals, losing in the final to Zenit St. Petersburg (55:64).
Leaders
The leader in average indicators in the Russian team is Casey Shepard (16.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.2 steals in 11 matches, spending almost 28 minutes on the court). Heavy forward Andrey Vorontsevich averages 10.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 23 minutes on the court in 18 games of the season.
MINSK forward Artsiom Sekushenka: "I am glad to return to the floor after 3 months, it was exciting in the previous match. Our next game is away against Pari Nizhny Novgorod. He is a disciplined and very competent opponent, whose strengths are aggravation from the perimeter and the accuracy of "three-point" shots. I believe that our team will succeed."
The roster of the opponent
Pari Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod
Defenders
1. Casey Shepherd, 06.05.1994, 188 cm, USA,
3. Efim Vorontsov, 09.15.2004, 178 cm, Russia,
8. Kendall Smith, 09.18.1995, 190 cm, USA,
12. Anton Ponkrashov, 04.23.1986, 200 cm, Russia,
13. Dmitry Khvostov, 08.21.1989, 190 cm, Russia,
19. Ivan Strebkov, 07.27.1991, 189 cm, Russia,
25. Vladislav Bliznyuk, 08.01.1999, 183 cm, Belarus,
44. Evgeny Baburin, 04.07.1987, 190 cm, Russia,
55. Sergey Zotkin, 09.09.2003, 190 cm, Russia.
Forwards
4. Pavel Gankevich, 04.22.2003, 198cm, Russia,
5. Alexander Gankevich, 05.08.1995, 201 cm, Russia,
10. Alexander Chadov, 11.20.2001, 204 cm, Russia,
17. Alexa Novakovic, 30.08.1996, 200 cm, Serbia,
22. Mikhail Belenitsky, 09.12.2002, 204 cm, Russia,
23. Philip Gafurov, 06.23.2001, 212 cm, Russia,
24. Timofey Rudovsky, 29.10.2004, 202 cm, Russia,
33. Andrey Vorontsevich, 07.17.1987, 207 cm, Russia.
Center
11. Vladimir Ivlev, 02.28.1990, 207 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Zoran Lukic, Serbia.
The match starts at 19:00, a live broadcast of the match will be available on the VTB United League website, and the Belarus 5 TV channel will show a recording of the game at 21:40. We are rooting for MINSK!