Unis Kazan holds off Nizhny in clash of Russian clubs

Unics Kazan held home court by knocking off Nizhny Novgorod 84-74 in an all-Russian battle to start the Last 32 Group M. Quino Colom collected 25 points, 5 rebounds and 12 assists for Unics while Latavious Williams scored 16 points, Kostas Kaimakoglou had 14 points and Keith Langford tallied 11 points in the win. Victor Rudd scored 26 points and Rasid Mahalbasic added 17 points for Nizhny but they were not enough to pick up a road win.

Valeriy Likhodey started the scoring for Unics while Rudd matched it for Nizhny. Kaspars Berzins’ score gave Nizhny its first lead 4-6. Unics was back ahead on Kaimakoglou’s three-pointer for 9-6. Langford extended the lead to 12-8 but Nizhny knotted it at 14-14 after a Evgeny Baburin three-pointer and a three-point play from Mahalbasic. Another Mahalbasic score evened the game at 16-16 when Unics started a 7-0 close to the quarter including a Colom three-point play to lead 23-16 after 10 minutes. Nizhny twice got the gap to 5 points but Colom hit twice from long range and Marko Banic completed a three-point play to put Unics up 36-20. Rudd stopped the 11-0 run but 2 Kaimakoglou free throws had the hosts up 40-22 and Langford’s foul shots made it 46-24. Five quick points from Rudd helped Nizhny trim the deficit to 46-31 at the break.

Langford started the second half for Unics but Nizhny scored the next 6 points to trim the gap to 48-37. Kaimakoglou’s triple pushed the advantage back to 17 points – 54-37 – before Rudd had a three-point play and three-pointer to get the deficit into single digits 56-48. It was 13 points again – 61-48 – after Arturas Milaknis’s three-ball. Nizhny got three-pointers from Ivan Strebkov and Andrei Kirdiachkin to trail just 65-58 after 30 minutes. Berzins trimmed it to 65-50 to start the fourth quarter while 3 Baburin free throws and a Mahalbasic basket completed a 2-15 run to get Nizhny back to within 67-65. Colom stopped a nearly 5-minute scoring drought for Unics and Williams made it 71-65. A Baburin three-ball got the gap to 73-70 with 3 minutes to play. But Langford and Colom knocked down three-pointers to get the lead to 81-72 and Nizhny scored just once in its final 4 possessions as Unics held court at home.