By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
David Holston scored 20 points and dished out six assists, Alexandre Chassang dropped 20 points of his own and JDA Dijon beat Nizhny Novgorod 75 – 67 to move to the Basketball Champions League FinaL Eight after winning the series 2-1.
Holston also made two key baskets that gave Dijon that extra push to victory down the stretch. With the score 67 – 65 and 1:51 left, he drained the jumper for two and in the next play he made the layup in transition to put his team up 71 – 65. Two free throws by Chase Simon sealed the deal for the French team.
Nizhny Novgorod led 55 – 54 at the end of the third period but fell behind after Dijon made a 10 – 3 run at the beginning of the last quarter. Anton Astapkovich (13 points) hit two 3-pointers in a row to cut the deficit to 67 – 65 with 3:14 to play but his team never got closer since Dijon made all the right plays in the last crucial minutes.
Artem Komolov was Nizhny’s top scorer with 18 points.
This will be Dijon’s first-time appearance in the top eight of BCL. They will play against Turk Telekom in the knockout quarterfinal.