Toolson, Timma Too Much For VEF

Zenit St. Petersburg defeated VEF Riga at home, 90-76 (17-21, 24-23, 21-18, 28-14).

Top Scorers
Zenit: Ryan Toolson (21 + 4 steals), Janis Timma (21 + 4 steals), Anton Pushkov (16), Aaron White (11 + 15 rebounds), Stefan Markovic (6 + 12 assists)

VEF: Janis Blums (21), Armands Skele (10), Ilja Gromovs (6 + 7 rebounds)

Turning Point
Early in the 4th quarter, Zenit blew open a close game with a 12-0 run. Ryan Toolson, making his second appearance of the season, scored seven of his 21 points in the spurt, including a big ‘3’ that pushed the lead to  double digits with 3:40 remaining.

VEF never threatened down the stretch, ultimately falling by 14.

Stat
15 – Aaron White had a huge night on the glass, grabbing 15 rebounds, including 5 offensive boards. That’s his second game with double-digit rebounds and he’s averaging a league-leading 11 per game.

Injury
Zenit star Sergey Karasev only played eight minutes and didn’t score a single point, before leaving the game with an injury in the 2nd quarter.

Quotes
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– We won the 4th quarter by a comfortable margin of 16 points and controlled the game. I would have liked to avoid such an anxious start to the game, but we played a lot of guys from the beginning, which had an impact at the end. We wore VEF out and managed to get the win.

VEF head coach Janis Gailitis:
– We played well for three quarters, but for various reasons we couldn’t maintain the tempo in the final period, and Zenit had an easy time deciding the outcome of the game.

Up Next
Zenit: November 6 at CSKA
VEF: November 6 vs. Tsmoki-Minsk

Snapshot