Zenit St. Petersburg defeated Astana at home, 99-72 (19-17, 18-18, 36-17, 26-20).
Top Scorers
Zenit: Artem Vikhrov (22), Aaron White (19+9 reb), Kyle Landry (18)
Astana: Rod Odom (18+8 reb), Rob Lowery (16+6 ast), Alexander Zhigulin (10)
Turning Point
Zenit blew open a tight game early in the 3rd quarter with a 15-2 run, turning a three-point deficit into a 52-42 lead. Artem Vikhrov, who finished with a game-high 22, scored seven of the 15 points.
Leading 59-49 late in the period, St. Petersburg went on another 12-3 run, book-ended by 3-pointers from Aaron White and Sergey Karasev.
After a promising start, Astana ran out of steam, slumping to a 99-72 defeat.
Zenit improves to 7-3, while Astana drops to 5-5.
Star
Artem Vikhrov. The 24-year-old Zenit guard scored a season-high 22, shooting 7-11, including 4-8 from downtown. With Janis Timma, Ryan Toolson and Sergey Karasev all having quiet nights, St. Petersburg needed someone else to step up and Vikhrov did so with aplomb.
Quotes
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– Astana has a very good team right now and they were even with us most of the game. Winning, especially by a large margin, after the losses to UNICS and Lokomotiv, was especially important. Today we managed to play the type of basketball that we want to play: aggressive defense and quick transition offense. In the first half, we didn’t hit some shots at that speed, but our work paid off in the second.
Astana head coach Ilias Papatheodorou:
– We tried to compete and managed to do that for 25 minutes, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t keep up with the tempo and aggressiveness that Zenit imposed on us. Our opponent was better today and deserved to win. But we gave everything we had. The guys competed to the end.
Up Next
Zenit: January 8 vs. Khimki
Astana: January 8 vs. Nizhny Novgorod
Snapshot
