Zenit St. Petersburg defeated Enisey Krasnoyarsk on the road, 104-84 (29-22, 31-27, 21-17, 27-14).
Top Scorers
Enisey: Suleiman Braimoh (20 + 8 reb), Denis Zakharov (16), Martins Meiers (10), Vitali Liutych (10)
Zenit: Kyle Kuric (34), Sergey Karasev (32)
Story
Four days after being held scoreless for only the third time in his VTB United League career, Sergey Karasev (32) combined for 66 points with teammate Kyle Kuric (34) to lead Zenit past Enisey on the road.
Playing the second of a three-game homestand, Enisey needed a win to keep its slim playoff hopes alive.
Zenit scored the first seven points of the game and led the entire first half, but couldn’t shake the home team. Krasnoyarsk trailed 40-26 early in the 2nd quarter, before an 11-0 run cut the deficit to three.
Enisey guard Zabian Dowdell knotted the score at 50-50 with two minutes remaining in the first half thanks to a four-point play.
Zabian @zayrd1 knocks down the 3 + 1! Reaction of Zenit’ coach is 😕@BC_Enisey 53 | @zenitbasket 56
2nd half is underway on https://t.co/yV5SuibzOt! pic.twitter.com/d3fe0b1JdW
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) April 26, 2018
The home team continued to apply pressure, grabbing its first lead of the game, 59-57, on a Gleb Goldyrev tip-in with 6:27 remaining in the 3rd quarter.
That’s when Kuric and Karasev took over. The American sharpshooter helped Zenit regain the lead on a pair of layups, before combining with Karasev for six straight free throws.
St. Petersburg led by seven, 77-70, entering the 4th quarter. Kuric kept scoring, stretching the lead to double digits early in the period as Zenit began to pull away.
Enisey was unable to respond. After scoring 53 in the first half, the Siberians only managed to score 31 in the second, slumping to a 104-84 defeat.
Zenit improves to 15-6, a half game up on 4th-place Lokomotiv-Kuban. Enisey falls to 5-16, two games out of 8th place with only three games remaining.
Stat
66 – Kuric and Karasev combined to shoot 60% from the field and 13-14 at the line for 66 points, becoming the first duo in League history to each score more than 30 points in a single game.
Quotes
Enisey head coach Oleg Okulov:
– Zenit is a team that has played at a high level for several seasons and competed for top three finishes. We always have a pretty tough time against them, but we were even with them for three quarters. We ran out of a steam a little at the end. We lost the defensive battles with Zenit’s leaders Kuric and Karasev.
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– We had a strong start on offense. We were scoring easy baskets, but we made mistakes every time on defensive switches. During the break, we got through to the players and our defense improved, but the offense struggled more. We won thanks to Kuric and Karasev. That’s a little scary. We need more balanced scoring. When teams are physical with our stars, we run into problems.
Up Next
Enisey: April 29 home vs. Tsmoki-Minsk
Zenit: May 5 away vs. CSKA
Images of the Game
