SuperCup 2022 is gaining momentum! On Friday, 2 games were at VTB Arena in Moscow – here are the key things of the Day 2.
The first sensation at the tournament, Loko beat Zenit!
The favorite was obvious: Zenit came to Moscow as the VTB United League reigning champion and the Kondrashin and Belov Cup winner and Lokomotiv played the second game in 2 days, while today the Krasnodar team players were forced to play without Ivan Paunic, who very actively led the team against Partizan.
Alexander Sekulic tried to use the widest possible rotation, but in the first half only 4 players of the starting 5 scored – Alexandr Shcherbenev, Jaylen Barford, Dmitry Uzinskii and Andrey Martiuk. Zenit had own problems: the St. Petersburg team could not score long-range shots for a long time, but trio Homesley-Wimbush-Tomasson helped to get the difference before the halftime – 40:36.
At the beginning of the second half, Jaylen Barford and Andrey Martiuk helped their team to make 11:2 run, but Loko failed to go far by more than 5 points. But the teams gave the audience a bright ending. On Caleb Homesley made shot, Jaylen Barford responded with his own, the winning one!
74:73 – Lokomotiv beat the VTB United League reigning champion. Now Zenit needs to beat Partizan with 12 points difference to compete for the trophy on the SuperCup final day.
Alexandr Shcherbenev gave the best game of his career
Jaylen Barford got 16 points and scored the winning shot, but the key player of Zenit – Loko game became a 21-year-old Krasnodar point guard Alexandr Shcherbenev.
The young playmaker started the game with 3 consecutive long-range shots made and finished with solid stats: 19 points (6-10 from the game, 3-6 three-pointers), 7 assists and 1 steal in 32 minutes on the court.
Shcherbenev’s previous career high was 14 points in the March regular season game against Enisey.
CSKA is the first SuperCup 2022 finalist
The Army team were again forced to play today without Alexey Shved and Nikita Kurbanov, which did not stop them from getting the lead at the very beginning of the game against Mega MIS. Newcomers Dallas Moore and Livio Jean-Charles like fast basketball and regularly delighted the fans with highlights.
29 points in the first quarter, 54 by the halftime, 82 before the last quarter – with such a performance, the last 10 minutes became a formality. The young Mega MIS players could not stand the Army team pace, despite giving the opportunity to play all 12 players in the roster, the team eventually lost by 25 points difference – 101:76.
CSKA goes to the SuperCup 2022 final and will try to defend the title on Sunday.
Rendezvous of the day: Samson Ruzhentsev against the former team
The 20-year-old CSKA newcomer Samson Ruzhentsev spent last season in Mega MIS. The forward was one of the team leaders in points (14.6) and rebounds (6.8) in the Serbian league and also played iin the Adriatic League 21st game.
Ruzhentsev started the game against the former team on the bench, but Emil Rajkovic gave the young player enough playing time to prove. In 16 minutes on the floor, Samson scored 5 points (2-7 from the game), 3 rebounds, 1 steal and two spectacular blocks.
Photo of the day
The tournament is friendly, the battles are serious – Andrey Martiuk and Richard Solomon show what a real battle for rebound is.
Top 5 players of the Day 2
Alexandr Shcherbenev (Lokomotiv Kuban): young point guard got 19 points with 6/10 from the game and 3/6 3-pointers. At the same time, the guard got 7 assists.
Livio Jean-Charles (CSKA): The French bigman started the game on the bench and finished it with a solid double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds. Jean-Charles scored all 9 2-point shots.
Caleb Homesley (Zenit): the American forward was pleased with his performance, but not with the percentage – 18 points, 6 shots out of 17 in the game.
Jaylen Barford (Lokomotiv Kuban): the American did not get 20 points, but still got into the top 5, he scored 6/13 and 16 points, including the winning shot.
Malcolm Casalon (Mega): the leader of the Serbian team’s offence possesions became the best in his team in points scored, with 16 points and 6/14 from the game.
The SuperCup-2022 Day 2 Results
Zenit (Saint Petersburg) – Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar) – 73:74 (17:16, 23:20, 16:23, 17:15)
CSKA (Moscow) – Mega (Belgrade) – 101:76 (29:21, 25:25, 28:11, 19:19)
The SuperCup-2022 Day 3 Schedule
17:00 UNICS (Kazan) – Mega (Belgrade)
19:30 Zenit (Saint Petersburg) – Partizan (Belgrade)
