Zenit defeated Lokomotiv Kuban at home – 106:67 (29:20, 20:24, 20:11, 37:12)
Game progress
The Krasnodar team started the game very active and took the lead, but towards the end of the first quarter Thomas Heurtel and Kyle Kuric gave Zenit a lead – 19:5. At the start of the second quarter, the St. Petersburg team lead became double-digit – 31:20, but Loko responded with a 13:2 run to tie. Despite this, the hosts continued to lead by the halftime – 49:44.
The third quarter was low-scoring, but then Bojan Dubljevic and Sergey Karasev three-pointers made the difference impressive. Zenit led by 14 points before the final quarter.
Key moment
This season, the Krasondar team has made several comebacks. But this time, Zenit left no chance to get back into the game. Loko defense broke down, and the hosts began to quickly build a lead that reached 30 points after another three-pointer by Kuric. The guests couldn’t recover from that and Zenit won the 18th game of the season.
X-factor
The St. Petersburg team made 15 of 31 three-pointers tonight, which helped to create such a huge lead.
Fact
Zenit beats a team from the Top 3 for the first time in the season. Prior to that, Zenit had no wins against CSKA, UNICS and Loko in 6 games.
106 points are the team’ season-high and the first hundred this season. Thomas Heurtel scored 21 points for the 3rd consecutive game.
Leaders
Zenit: Kyle Kuric (24), Tomas Heurtel (21 + 11 assists), Bojan Dubljevic (16), Trent Frazier (12 + 5 assists), Vince Hunter (10 + 5 rebounds), Georgy Zhbanov (10).
Lokomotiv Kuban: DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell (21 + 5 rebounds), Andrey Martiuk (15 + 13 rebounds).
What’s next
Zenit (18-9): March 2 on the road against CSKA
Lokomotiv Kuban (19-8): March 2 on the road versus UNICS.
