For exactly one month, «Astana» didn't play in the VTB United League. During this time, our team won 6 matches in the National League and took the Kazakhstan Cup. The upcoming game against «Nizhny Novgorod» will be only the second home game in the VTB United League season, which will take place on December 5 in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican Cycling Track “Saryarka”, beginning at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time.
 
ATTENTION! — The match will be held without spectators, with empty stands.
 
«Nizhny Novgorod» - is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of Nizhny Novgorod, founded in 2000. This season, in addition to participating in the VTB United League, play in the FIBA ​​Champions League.
 
Achievements:

• Champion of Division «B» of the Russian Super League — 2010
• Russian Cup finalist — 2011, 2018, 2019
• Silver medalist of VTB United League — 2013/14
• Silver medalist of the Russian Championship — 2013/14

 
Team roster:

The team from «Nizhny Novgorod» has completely replaced the imports compared to last season. The team had been left by the leaders — Americans Darral Willis, Brandon Brown and Terell Parks, as well as Michael Jenkins. Of the Russian players, the club did not renew their contracts with Pavel Antipov and Georgy Zhbanov, who moved to Kazan UNICS.



Eight Russians extended their contracts with «Nizhny Novgorod», among them the first players — Artem Komolov, Anton Astapkovich, Evgeny Baburin, Ivan Strebkov and Alexander Gankevich, in addition, Sergey Toropov and Alexander Chadov, as well as the young player Mikhail Belenitsky. Four new imports have joined NN's roster this season. But one of them left the team without having played a single game — this is the American power forward Nate Sestina, who played for the university team last season. French centre Alexandre Gavrilovic also spent last season in the VTB United League as part of «Tsmoki Minsk» team, before that in the professional arena he played in the French teams «Roanne», «Ermin Nantes» and «ALM Evreux», as well as in the Bulgarian team «Balkan». The newcomer of the United League is the American point guard Casey Shepherd, who had previously played for Montenegrin «Ulcinj», Hungarian «Kaposvari», Georgian «Batumi» and Ukrainian «Kiev-Basket». Another American newcomer to the NN league is forward Luc Petrasek, who previously played two seasons in the NBA Development League for the «Greensboro Swarm» team, and last season he spent the German Giesen Fotisikers. Russian young players — guard Timofey Gerasimov, who had previously played for «Nizhny Novgorod», and forward Ilya Platonov joined the team from the Lokomotiv-Kuban system.
 
Head coach:

As in the previous season, the coaching staff of “Nizhny Novgorod” is headed by an experienced Serbian specialist Zoran Lukic. He is also assisted by Russian coaches Aleksey Zhukov and Sergei Kozin, and since the beginning of this season, they have been joined by Yegor Panov.


 
Rival leaders:

An excellent move this season was scored by the Russian forward Anton Astapkovich, who is currently the most effective and efficient player in the team. Casey Shepherd fit very well into the Nizhny Novgorod squad and demonstrates an excellent game. Also, the Russians Artem Komolov and Evgeny Baburin bring a lot of benefit to the NN treasury. In addition, the main players are Alexandre Gavrilovic and Ivan Strebkov. Sergey Toropov showed himself well in the first game, but after that, he never entered the court. The coaching staff constantly engage Alexander Gankevich, Alexander Chadov and Timofey Gerasimov.
 
Tournament position:

“Nizhny Novgorod” this season played 4 matches and in the first game won CSKA, also beat “Zielona Gora” and PARM, but lost in the match with the “Lokomotiv Kuban” team. Thus, the Nizhny Novgorod team is now on the third line of the standings with three wins in four games. “Astana” after two wins in six games takes the ninth place.
 
Game history:

According to the results of the previous, «Nizhny Novgorod» is noticeably ahead of our team. Until last season, our rivals won 14 victories and lost only twice in the VTB United League. In the last incomplete season, the teams managed to play only one game in Nur-Sultan, and then, too, the Nizhny Novgorod team celebrated the victory.
 
Interesting Facts:

• “Astana” won its first away victory in the VTB United League in «Nizhny Novgorod».

The match will take place on Sunday, December 5 in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», beginning at 15:00 Astana time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section, as well as live on the QazSport TV channel.

Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.

The team of the basketball club «Astana» most of the time in the home match of the VTB United League against «Nizhny Novgorod» played the role of catch-up and constantly snipped on the heels of the opponents, but could not pull even with them.

«Astana» won the jump ball, but the first points in the match were scored by the guests. Martins Meyers opened the scoring of our team in the next attack, and in general, he was extremely active at the start of the game. «Nizhniy Novgorod» was a little confused at the start, which is why by the fourth minute of the match they conceded ten points and lost six. However, after that, the game at “Astana” unfortunately went all wrong. For almost four minutes, our players could not score and made quite a few losses. On the contrary, the game of our rivals improved and they made good use of these minutes, after which their gap by six points turned into four points of advantage. “Astana” finally managed to break the scoring pause  - Jeremiah Hill was accurate from the free-throw line, but this did not change the course of the game. Our rivals continued to lead, however, their lead did not increase much. Yet a minute before the end of the first quarter, the capital squad was losing seven points. The final score of the first ten minutes was set by Devin Marble — 15:20 in favour of «Nizhny Novgorod». The start of the second ten minutes remained with «Nizhny», and after a minute and a half, they were ahead of us by more than ten points. The difference about ten points lasted a couple of minutes, but then Michael Thompson scored the first three-pointer for “Astana” in this game, and after two points by Devin Marble, the gap of our team was reduced to three points. Nevertheless, Emil Rajkovic's players did not succeed in catching up with their rivals. The difference in the score changes around 3 — 6 points, and a minute before the end of the first half of the match, “Astana” was losing only two points. Despite all attempts, our players failed to complete their attacks, while “NN” gained four more points and the first half ended with a score of 35:41 in favour of our rivals.



Six points is a small gap, but our team could not neutralize it. Moreover, the Nizhny Novgorodians quickly regained their double-digit advantage. Devin Marble's points didn't make much of a difference in the score, but a three from Jeremiah Hill reduced the gap to five points. And again, “Astana” failed to put pressure on rivals and equalize the score. “NN” again quickly regained the double-digit lead and tenaciously held on to it. A couple of minutes before the end of the third period Jeremiah Hill distinguished himself with a beautiful dunk, but this did not greatly affect the situation. The last points in this quarter were scored by basketball players from the camp of rivals, who were ahead of our players by twelve points before the final quarter — 49:61. The lag was not fatal, but “Astana” needed to accelerate to catch up. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Moreover, «Nizhny Novgorod» began to gain the advantage, and their advantage imperceptibly went up to twenty points. Martins Meyers slightly reduced the gap with a couple of effective attacks, but, alas, after one and a half minutes the scoreboard was already -19 for “Astana”. The players of the Kazakh team tried to aggravate the situation, but the guests firmly held the initiative and kept at a distance of fifteen points. Dmitry Gavrilov had a very good ending of the game and successfully implemented several attacks, but a minute before the final siren “Astana” was losing ten points. There was no breakthrough, and Devin Marble, five seconds before the end, set the final score of 69:79 — the defeat of «Astana».
 
Most productive:

• «Astana» — Devin Marble is the most productive player in our team, he has 16 points and 7 rebounds. A successful start and active actions during all the games brought Martins Meyers 14 points, 8 rebounds and 3 block shots. Dmitry Gavrilov has 11 points and 5 rebounds, and Michael Thompson today earned 10 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists.
• «Nizhny Novgorod» — Nizhny Novgorod captain Evgeny Baburin today scored 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals. Artem Komolov and Anton Astapkovich scored 13 points each.

 
Head coach of «Astana» — Emil Rajkovic:
- Congratulations to «Nizhny Novgorod» on the victory, the opponent played better and deservedly won. We could not find our pace, as we did not play in the VTB League for a month. Our players were very soft in this game and did not find an opportunity to attack, despite the fact that we were preparing. We must learn a lesson from this defeat». 

Head coach of «Nizhny Novgorod» — Zoran Lukic:
- Congratulations to our team on the victory. But we must not forget about the quality of the game, which our team had just not at the highest level. In the fourth quarter, there were a few missed lay-ups. I think this will be a good lesson for our team.»
 
Next match: our guys will again leave home for a long time, first on December 8 and 9 they will go to the southern capital for the first two-league meeting in the National League season with the «Almaty Legion». The capital team will play the next match within the framework of the VTB United League on December 14 away against the Polish «Zielona Gora».

Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.