VEF Riga defeated Parma Perm on the road, 81-74 (24-20, 17-23, 22-14, 18-17).
Top Scorers
Parma: Danilo Andjusic (22), Konstantin Bulanov (15), Nikita Barinov (10)
VEF: Janis Blums (19+7 ast), Martins Meiers (16), Arnolds Helmanis (12), Kristopher Richard (12+3 stl)
Turning Point
Trailing 49-48 midway through the 3rd quarter, VEF put together a mini 7-0 run, courtesy of a Janis Blums 3-pointer and back-to-back baskets from Martins Meiers.
The visitors would never trail again, leading by nine at the end of the period and going on to secure a reasonably comfortable win.
Parma’s 1st Half/2nd Half Split
Incredibly, despite an 0-8 record, Parma has now led five of eight games at halftime, including today’s contest.
Star
Janis Blums. The Latvian veteran continues to lead the way in Riga, scoring 19 points to go with seven assists in today’s win. Blums is averaging 19.5 points per game this season, 3rd in the League, and has been a big part of VEF’s strong 4-4 start.
Quotes
Parma head coach Viacheslav Shushakov:
– Once again, we need to understand the kind of League we’ve joined. If you can’t punish your opponent’s mistakes, they’ll punish you. VEF demonstrated that today. We prepared for the game, broke down the positives and negatives, created a lot of open shots, but couldn’t hit them. Our shooting percentage is why we lost today.
VEF head coach Janis Gailitis:
– First of all, I want to congratulate Parma on their debut season in the VTB United League. It’s very nice to play in Perm. There are a lot of fans and there’s a real basketball atmosphere. We knew that the game would be very tough. In the first half, we did a poor job of controlling the game. We allowed Parma to score a lot of easy points, but in the 2nd half we focused on defense and were very patient on offense. Give credit to the Parma guys. They battled for every inch of the floor, but luck was on our side.
Up Next
Parma: December 10 at Khimki
VEF: December 11 at CSKA
Snapshot
