By Stefan Djordjevic/ sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
Due to rescheduling, an extra game was played this week in the Basketball Champions League and Nizhny Novgorod came out convincingly victorious at home against AEK with 88-60 on the scoreboards.
Kasey Shepherd was on fire for Nizhny recently and he was impressive this game as well with 17 points, eight assists, and five rebounds while Artem Komolov led the scoring effort with 21 points on 5-6 from deep.
Andrey Vorontsevich added 15 points and 11 rebounds while, for AEK, Dimitris Moraitis was the only double-digit scorer with 13 points. Daryl Macon and Keith Langford had nine each.
The Russian team was in control from early on and was already ahead in double-digits after the first quarter (25-15). Their three-point shooting stayed impressive as usual but their defense was on top of the challenge as well, keeping AEK on 18 or fewer points in all quarters. Once they hit the 20-point margin (50-30) in the third quarter, there was no going back.
Nizhny improved to a perfect 4-0 record in Group K and secured a spot in the Final Eight Tournament while AEK now holds a 2-2 record and will have to hold off Turk Telekom and SIG Strasbourg who are chasing after them with 1-3 records.