Zenit beat Pari Nizhny Novgorod at home — 76:66 (19:7, 19:13, 18:24, 20:22).
The best scorers
Zenit: Trey Tompkins (18 + 5 rebounds), Caleb Homesley (13), Thomas Heurtel (12 + 6 assists)
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Jermaine Love (19 + 6 rebounds), Anton Ponkrashov (11 + 6 rebounds)
Game progress
The start showed that the game could not be very resultative – the teams cannot score for 2 minutes. Although Dmitrii Khvostov scored three-pointer, Zenit quickly took the lead, stopping all the Volga team attempts to get closer in the paint. Although the St. Petersburg team did not score everything,Sergey Toropov and Caleb Homesley actions were enough to finish the first quarter with a double-digit lead – 19:7.
In the second quarter, Zenit continued to build up the lead and afterThomas Heurtel made shot, the lead was 19 points — 31:12. For the entire first half, Nizhny Novgorod scored only 20 points — this was the team’s anti-record in the season.
However, Pari NN still hoped to save the game. Zoran Lukic managed to make adjustments. The Volga team focused on three-pointers, Aleksandr Chadov, Jermaine Love and Anton Ponkrashov began to score their shots. Having scored more in the third quarter than in the entire first half (24 points), Pari NN finished the third quarter trailing by 12 — 56:44.
The key moment
In the fourth quarter Zoran Lukic team continued to give the pressure. Ponkrashov and Love finally started to score without missing. After another Ponkrashov made shot the score was 68:62 and Xavier Pascual had to take a timeout. It was decisive. First, Caleb Homesley with a lay-up, then Thomas Heurtel three-pointer in a fast-break returned a 10-point lead. Nizhny had not enough strength or time. Zenit wins the sixth game of the season and very soon will get close to UNICS or CSKA – depending on November 10 game result.
Hero
Thomas Heurtel. The French guard did not become the best scoring player, but he controlled Zenit offense and had 6 assists, his three-pointer in the last minutes was desecive.
Numbers
46 points in the second half helped Pari NN to make a comeback, although in the first half the Volga team had a scenario of the recent MINSK – Enisey game, which was the less scoring game of the season.
What’s next
Zenit: road game againstLokomotiv Kuban on November 16
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: home game versus MINSK on November 11
