CSKA beat Zenit on the road – 82:63 (17:13, 18:17, 23:21, 24:12).
Top scorers
Zenit: Evgeny Voronov (14), Colton Iverson (12), Vladislav Trushkin (11 + 5 rebounds).
CSKA: Johannes Voigtmann (17 + 7 rebounds), Daniel Hackett (14 + 7 rebounds), Nikita Kurbanov (12 + 5 rebounds).
Story
Before the game Zenit held 5th place with 6-6 record. CSKA had 10-4 and held 2nd, outpacing Lokomotiv-Kuban in additional stats. In regular season games CSKA last time won in Petersburg on March 20, 2016.
The Red-blues let their opponent score only 1 point in first 4 minutes of play, making the whole first half. Both teams were successful at defense, and CSKA were leading. Zenit hit only 28% from the field including 2/14 threes. One minute before the half-time the guests had a double-digit lead after Johannes Voigtmann three. At that point Alex Renfroe and Anton Pushkov made a mini-run 5:0, that made the situation for Zenit a little better – 30:35.
In the third teams turned up offensively. CSKA made a few tries to make runs. Two minutes left after Ivan Ukhov’s three the Red-blues had +10 again. Zenit woke up in the end of the quarter, but this time activated CSKA leader Mike James made 58:51 on the scoreboard with his free throws.
Key moment
In the beginning of the quarter James had to seat because of fourth personal foul. CSKA found another offensive option. Daniel Hackett scored 5 points and created space for open threes by Howard Sant-Roos and Nikita Kurbanov – 75:60 with 3 and a half minutes left on the shotclock. Zenit didn’t manage to find its leader. After Darrun Hilliard’s deep shot 2 minutes before the end it was all in the books already.
CSKA broke St. Petersburg losing streak and settled on the second spot. Zenit now have negative record in standings.
Debut
Howard Sant-Roos played his first official VTB league game for CSKA and was helpful: 3 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists. The first Cuban in CSKA’s history have already played in League for Nymburk in 2015/16 season.
Stat
+15 – CSKA’s solid advantage on the rebounds (45-30) was one of the key victory factors.
Hero
Daniel Hackett. Useful Italian played his best part in the fourth quarter when he arranged the possession at key point. He has 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
Comments
Zenit head coach Joan Plaza:
— Congratulations to CSKA, the opponent was better and deserved the victory. To be honest, 3 games in 6 days is realy tough for us. But we have to learn, we should play more such weeks. It’s hard for everybody, even for CSKA, though their bench is longer. But again, we have to learn. Only few our players have experienced such schedule, the majority have this first time this season. Today we can’t complain, CSKA are more talanted, and they proved it tonight.
CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
– Congratulations to my team, first of all we were focused on defense. We didn’t underrate Zenit. Now, after double week Euroleague teams are obviously overstretched – it concerns us, Zenit and other teams. In such conditions bench length is important. Today, just recovered from injury Daniel Hackett played full minutes as well as Ivan Ukhov and Howard Sant-Roos. This helped us a lot.
Next
Zenit: January 26 at UNICS
CSKA: January 26 vs Nizhny Novgorod
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