With this confident win over the Greek Panionios in the fifth tour of the Eurocup Basketball club Nizhny Novgorod made the last step to the playoff series. Though it could be secured tonight in case if Crvena Zvezda wins Bilbao on tour.
Zoran Lukic/head coach BCNN:
It is hard to play with dedication when you are already considered a favourite and your win is expected as a fact. Plus we are now reconstructing our schemes due to the leave of one of the players and arrival of Leo Layons. Unfortunately due to the Eurocup rules he can't play till the end of the group stage, although during our trainings we work to the perspective. In general I am grateful to the guys that despite all the above they showed the attitude and did what they had to.
Ioannis Sfairopoulos/head coach Panionios.
We showed some pretty good basketball and tried to stay in the game till the end. We've made some mistakes but I have to say that we've played against the very strong team that is very effective in using its centers and forwards. If not for some misses in the end the result could be different. I have to admit that Nizhny Novgorod proved to be stronger today and that's why my congratulations to its players and head coach.
«Nizhny Novgorod» - «Panionios»: 80 — 67 (24 -13, 19 — 22, 14 — 15, 23 — 17)
«BCNN»: Thompson (19 pts + 11 rebounds + 4 assists), Gubanov (16), Antonov (10 + 5 assists), Panin (9 + 8 rebounds + 4 assists), Korobkov (9), Baburin (7), Khvostov (5 + 6 assists), Rochestie (3), Ivlev (2), Savelyev (0), Brezec — did not play.
«Panionios»: McCollum (22), Carter (9), Kyritsis (8)
BC Nizhny Novgorod signed a one-year deal with Canadian bigman Sean Denison (211 cm, 111 kg, 32 y.o.). Last season he spent in Romanian CSM Oradea, participating in the national championship and Basketball Champions League. From 2011 till 2013 he played in Russian clubs Spartak-Primorye and Ataman.
Nizhny Novgorod terminated the contract with American forward Erik McCree who’d joined the team this august. The decision was made by mutual agreement. At the moment Nizhny is in search of a new player for the vacant place.
BC NN signed a two-year contract with American forward Erik McCree (23 y.o., 203 cm, 102 kg). From 2013 to 2017 he was playing for Louisiana Tech in NCAA. Last season he showed his best statistics averaging 17,7 points, 8,9 rebounds, 1,3 assists in 33 games.
BC NN signed a two-year deal with American point guard Sterling Gibbs (188cm, 84kg, 24 y.o). In his college years he played for Seton Hall Pirates and Connecticut Huskies in NCAA. In 2016-2017 spent his first season overseas as he joined Hungarian team Kormend. He helped the team to semifinals in Hungarian Cup and Hungarian League averaging 14,4 points, 2,1 rebounds, 3,3 assists in 27 games.
