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.
