Zenit St. Petersburg defeated Astana on the road, 105-82 (25-17, 33-22, 24-23, 23-20).
Top Scorers
Astana: Rob Lowery (22+4 stl), Rod Odom (18+7 reb), Ousman Krubally (13)
Zenit: Ryan Toolson (24+5 ast), Janis Timma (21), Sergey Karasev (16), Kyle Landry (14)
Turning Point
Sharp execution on both ends of the court helped Zenit grab control of the game in the first half. St. Petersburg dominated the glass, punished Astana’s mistakes and scored efficiently in a dominant showing.
Zenit began pulling away midway through the 1st quarter: Sergey Karasev scored five points in 27 seconds and Kyle Landry scored on back-to-back possessions to make it a nine-point game, 24-15.
Rob Lowery tried to counter for Astana, but a 12-0 run from the visitors midway through the 2nd quarter gave Zenit a 58-39 edge at halftime.
Zenit cruised in the 2nd half to improve to 10-3 and move into a tie for 3rd place with UNICS. This is also the 3rd straight game Zenit has scored more than 100 points.
Stat
29 – number of Zenit assists.
Quotes
Astana head coach Ilias Papatheodorou:
– Congratulations to Zenit on the win. They completely earned it. We played without energy and weren’t aggressive on defense. That’s our problem. No question, Zenit is a very high-level team with good players. We gave the game away too easily today. We need to keep working. Our schedule is very challenging right now.
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– We played well on defense and used a big rotation. The important thing is that we didn’t relax leading by 20 points. Most importantly, we executed on defense and offense. There were some good fast breaks. We got the big men involved, then we moved the attack to the perimeter for 3-pointers. Overall, I’m satisfied with the game.
Up Next
Astana: January 29 at CSKA
Zenit: January 29 vs. Tsmoki-Minsk
Snapshot
