Zenit beat Avtodor at home – 109:66 (27:14, 26:14, 22:16, 34:22)
Top scorers
Avtodor: Markel Starks (15), Elgin Cook (13), Mouhammadou Jaiteh (11+9 rebounds)
Zenit: Will Thomas (30+5 rebounds), Mateusz Ponitka (16), Colton Iverson (13+6 rebounds), Vladislav Trushkin (11), Anton Pushkov (10+11 rebounds)
Story
After 4 wins in 5 games Avtodor came up to the play-off zone while Zenit who are not used to play a double game are ranked 10th. However, Saint-Petersburg indicated that they aren’t satisfied with this state of affair in the first quarter. In the middle of the starting quarter Mateusz Ponitka made Zenit’s lead double-digit with a three-pointer – 19:8. Saratov answered with 6-0 run but it were their last points in that quarter.
Meanwhile, Petersburg continued to attack: on-fire Anton Pushkov continued his first quarter efforts making Zenit’s score twice bigger (33:14). Will Thomas was the guests’ hero – his 13 points in one quarter helped Zenit decide the game before the half-time break (53:28). But the guests weren’t satisfied enough and continued to increase their lead.
There was the only question left – whether Zenit can show their season-high in scoring, and Colton Iverson helped his team to achieve that with a last minute dunk – 109 points. Zenit’s 5th victory brings them back into the playoff race. It’s curious that 4 out of 5 victories were gained on the road.
Hero
Will Thomas. Forward showed his best game in the season – it only took him 24 minutes to score 30 points. Before this game, he haven’t crossed the 20-point border.
Stat
109 points is the best result of Zenit in the season. Previously, they had more than a 100 points only twice but both times in losses.
Next
Avtodor: January 4 at UNICS
Zenit: January 6 at Tsmoki-Minsk
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