Top scorers
Nizhny Novgorod: Kasey Shepherd (23 + 5 steals), Andrei Vorontsevich (20 + 6 rebounds), Ivan Strebkov (13).
Tsmoki-Minsk: Kris Clyburn (22), Toms Leimanis (10).

Nizhny via Vorontsevich and Komolov’s shots started with 8 to 2 run, the first quarter wasn’t high-scoring. The Dragons found their main offensive options Kris Clyburn and Toms Leimanis, who scored all 13 team points in the first quarter – 17:13 in Nizhny’s favor. The second quarter was a bit more spectacular. Nizhny had 8 points in 2 minutes scored by Kasey Shepherd, who hit 2 threes. The guests scored only 1 point more compared to previous quarter and by the half time the gap was double digit – 27:37.

In the third quarter only Shepherd (12) and Vorontsevich (11) scored for Nizhny but it was enough to make final push. Minsk again scored only 13 points in a quarter while on fire duo were firing from downtown.

The American increased NN’s lead with his makes and the Russian made it 20 points (60:40). There was no intrigue in the last quarter. Nizhny took revenge on Tsmoki for the first round game.

Comments
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Zoran Lukic:
– Congratulations to my team on the victory. As I said earlier, it’s hard to prepare for the game when everybody else say you already got this W. Unnecessary pressure. This game we wanted to give some more minutes to low rotation players: firstly, Timofey Gerasimov and Sergey Toropov. It also was about Alex Gavrilovich but he has broken nose and isn’t ready to place. We used Vorontsevich a lot. He is eventually getting into the rhythm but he lacks stamina. He needs some time but unfortunatelly we hold few practices.

Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Rostislav Vergun:
– Congratulations to the opponents for the victory. Nizhny’s signature defense was kept all game long, we couldn’t find open shots. We managed to score only 57 points. It’s extremely little to achieve something.