Zenit defeated Samara on the road, 99–65 (31–19, 17–13, 27–19, 24–14).
Main Story
After losing in the previous round, Zenit took the court with the right mindset. The hosts couldn’t handle the early pressure and were already trailing by double digits after 5 minutes. The visitors dominated the rebounding battle, grabbing 12 offensive rebounds in the first half, while also shooting accurately from beyond the arc (6 of 12). Ike Iroegbu, Andre Roberson, and Alex Poytress each had 10 points by halftime.
Samara was unable to turn the tide even after the break. The opponent continued to gradually extend its lead throughout the game. Five players from St. Petersburg finished the game with double-digit points, and the visitors managed to maintain a 50% shooting percentage from beyond the arc. Zenit secured a big win, but for the second time this season, they fell just short of reaching 100 points.
X-Factor
The visitors’ dominance was most evident on the boards. Zenit won the rebounding battle, 46–26.
Interesting Facts
Alex Poythress tied his personal scoring record in the VTB League with 23 points.
Egor Evstafyev scored his first points of the season (3).
Zenit extended its undefeated streak in head-to-head matchups against Samara to 12-0.
Press Conference
Samara Head Coach Miloš Pavičević:
– Unfortunately, the first quarter didn’t go our way: we gave up a lot of points and lost a lot of battles. But we have to give the guys credit: in the second quarter, we came back and even tied the score, and started winning the battles. But in the second half, we simply ran out of steam.
Against an opponent like Zenit, the guys gave it their all, but it was very tough. That said, we had only 14 turnovers—which is very few against such an aggressive team. We moved the ball well and made quite a few open three-pointers. That’s good, and it’s encouraging. But we lost the battle on the boards, allowing Zenit to run far more fast breaks than we did—that’s what led to this score. Our shooting percentage was actually decent.
Zenit Head Coach Duško Ivanović:
– We did what we were supposed to do today. Before the game, I said that Samara has good transitions between defense and offense, and the team plays well together. If they had a few foreign players, they’d be a different team.
Didn’t score 100 points? The most important thing for us is to win the game; it doesn’t matter whether we score 99 or 100 points. Today we were able to play with a deep rotation. Everyone wants to play, and we base our decisions on how they perform in practice. Whoever trains well is the one who takes the court.
Top Performers
Samara: Dmitry Cheburkin (17 points + 6 rebounds), Zakhar Vedishchev (13), Sergey Zotkin (12)
Zenit: Alex Poythress (23 points + 5 rebounds), Georgy Zhbanov (16 points + 7 rebounds), Andre Roberson (14 points, 8 rebounds), Ike Iroegbu (13), Andrey Martyuk (12 points, 9 rebounds)
Up Next
Samara: October 25 at home against Lokomotiv-Kuban
Zenit: October 26 at home against Yenisey.
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