Finally, home!
Our team will play its first home game of the regular season of the VTB United League. The opponent is Pari Nizhny Novgorod...
A habit of travel
The team haven't played in Moscow for over a month – its last games were against Khimki and MBA-MAI on September 9th and 11th. Since then, the team has visited Dubai, Belgrade, Samara, Perm, and St. Petersburg – and now, finally, we're home! However, it won't be for long. This coming weekend, we'll visit faraway Krasnoyarsk, and our next home game will be partially away – we'll play against Mega Belgrade at CSKA Arena on Wednesday. We hope the fans will create the right atmosphere!
In the meantime, the red-blues have caught their breath after their emotional victory in St.Petersburg and held their only practice at the venue of the upcoming events, Basket Hall Moscow.
"Games against Nizhny are always tough because they come at us without pressure," noted CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. "They have a good team this season, they're playing good basketball, so we expect a tough game. We hope the support of our fans in the first home game of the season will push us forward."
All over again
Last season, Nizhny advanced to the playoffs (where they ultimately lost to CSKA), but did so despite numerous personnel issues. This summer, the Volga team was hit by changes again, with one of the key losses being the transfer of Alexander Chadov to our team.
In the offseason, the management acquired four new foreign players, and one of them, Shane Gatling, is already Pari NN's leading scorer (14.3 points). Kirill Popov, a big man who transferred from Khimki and played for the CSKA youth team, immediately took on a key role, averaging 13.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 45.5% three-point shooting.
Meanwhile, the organization of the game remains in the hands of another American, Isaiah Washington, who dished out 4.0 assists, and veteran Dmitry Khvostov, who has recovered from injury (7.0 points, 3.7 assists). The team's leader in minutes played is another graduate of our club's youth program, Alexander Khomenko (28.7 minutes, 11.0 points).
Past matchups
Win-loss record: 51-5
2024-25 VTB League regular season games:
05-Oct-2024. Pari NN – CSKA: 77-75 (-2)
02-Nov-2024. CSKA – Pari NN: 91-65 (+26)
09-Feb-2025. Pari NN – CSKA: 86-94 (+8)
09-Apr-2025. CSKA – Pari NN: 109-82 (+27)
Querterfinals:
23-Apr-2025. CSKA – Pari NN: 114-83 (+31)
25-Apr-2025. CSKA – Pari NN: 106-65 (+41)
28-Apr-2024. Pari NN – CSKA: 68-99 (+31)
Brief dossier
BC Pari Nizhny Novgorod
Founded: 2000
Colors: white, black
Homecourt: Labor Unions Palace of Sports (5,000)
President: Sergey Panov
Head coach: Sergei Kozin
Website: www.nn-basket.ru
Accomplishments: Russian Cup winner (2023), VTB United League runner-ups (2014), Russian Championship runner-up (2014), Superleague B champion (2010), Russian Cup finalists (2011)
