Zenit beat Enisey on the road – 84:67 (25:11, 23:26, 20:16, 16:14).
Top scorers
Enisey: Denis Zakharov (19), Nicola Rebic (12), Garlon Green (10), Aleksandr Gudumak (10 + 5 rebounds).
Zenit: Austin Hollins (15), Andrey Zubkov (14 + 6 rebounds), Gustavo Ayon (13 + 6 rebounds + 5 assists), Will Thomas (12 + 5 rebounds), Mateusz Ponitka (11).
Story
Enisey and Zenit had even records before the game (7-11) and pretend to fight for play-off spots.
Zenit from the beginning of the game turned on their long-range mode. Threes from Zubkov (3) and Hollins have set the lead of Zenit — 14:5.
After that other Zenit’s leaders have become more active. Accurate shots by Ayon and Ponitka (13 points were scored by them) let their team to win the first quarter with a comfortable lead — 25:11.
Anyway this haven’t broke Enisey. In the second quarter they become more aggressive in the defense, Green and Rebic scored their first three-pointers in the game and Zakharov scored his points (12). Zenit stayed with a double-digit (48:37) lead before the half break only because of their threes (they scored 6 out of 13) and this is a 61 percent.
In the third quarter Enisey tried to put some pressure, but this haven’t saved them. Guests were scoring threes while Zakharov was showing his bright performance. After 30 minutes of the game Zenit have scored 11 accurate three-pointers and 4 two-pointers. And their lead remained double-digit — 68:53.
Intrigue in this game wasn’t meant to happen. Enisey couldn’t manage to set their offence properly due to the lack of their forwards (Zubcic, Lewis, Berry). While Zenit were showing their level and were punishing their opponent for mistakes. In the middle of the last quarter after an accurate free throw by Thomas the lead of Zenit has been raised to 19 points — 75:56 and that is where this game lost its intrigue. Final win (84:67) let Xavier Pascual team settle in play-off zone on 6th spot, Enisey has only 1 victory in last 10 games.
Hero
Gustavo Ayon proved that he is strong all-round basketball player. In this game center of Zenit scored 13 points, made 6 rebounds, 3 steals and gave 5 assists. This stats made him the most valuable player of the game (25 EFF points).
Stat
12 — out of the current teams of the United League Zenit is the one and only team which has never been beaten by Enisey. All 12 games ended with a victory for Zenit.
Comments
Enisey head coach Drazen Anzulovich:
– First of all, my congratulations to Zenit. It is really hard to talk about this game. We lacked the spirit, we haven’t played smart enough. In the beginning of the game we let them score a few easy shots and this gave them confidence. And of course it was a really hard game without our three main players.
Zenit head coach Xavier Pascual:
– First thing a want to say is that we spent this magical week very good. We beat CSKA, Zalgiris and today Enisey. I am satisfied with the results. Today we started very good in the offence. We took the lead, which allowed us to play confident, and turn this game into a victory, and I am really glad.
Next
Enisey: March 14 vs UNICS
Zenit: March 16 vs Nizhny Novgorod
Photo
