UNICS Takes Down Zenit In St. Pete

UNICS Kazan defeated Zenit St. Petersburg on the road, 95-84 (22-20, 23-26, 21-14, 28-25).

Top Scorers
Zenit: Janis Timma (27), Stefan Markovic (13+6 ast), Artem Vikhrov (10)

UNICS:  Keith Langford (20), Quino Colom (14+8 reb+12 ast), Latavious Williams (14+6 reb), Orlando Johnson (14)

Turning Point
The game’s momentum shifted suddenly. Zenit led by one at halftime, 46-45, and looked to be in good position to take down Euroleague-weary UNICS at home.

But Kazan had other plans. Trailing 51-50 midway through the 3rd quarter, UNICS went on a 9-1 run, sparked by a pair of Quino Colom layups.

Up by eight at the end of the period, 67-59, UNICS opened the 4th on a 12-0 run to erase any doubt over the outcome.

With the victory, Kazan keeps pace with CSKA in 1st place (8-1). Zenit suffers its second loss of the season, dropping to 5th behind Khimki and Loko.

Star
Quino Colom had a huge impact, finishing two rebounds shy of a triple-double (14 points, 12 assists, eight rebounds).

Quotes
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– In order to beat teams like this you need to play well on defense, above all. We played poorly today. No one got the job done: neither the big men, who lost all the contested balls under the basket, nor the guards, who let [Kazan] score from the perimeter with fouls. I wouldn’t say the team was fatigued, but the psychological pressure made everything a lot more difficult, especially after Markovic’s injury.

UNICS head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
– We arrived yesterday in St. Petersburg after not the best game in Athens vs. Olympiacos. There wasn’t much time to prepare, but we went to practice and managed to break down our opponent. We understand we wouldn’t be in the best shape and paid special attention to defense. Today we managed to stop Toolson throughout the entire game and Timma only scored a lot in the final minutes. Overall, we managed to pull Zenit into a physical, defensive-style game.

Up Next
UNICS: December 17 at Avtodor
Zenit: December 18 vs. Lokomotiv-Kuban

Snapshot