Zenit beat UNICS at home — 97:81 (25:21, 32:27, 18:17, 22:16).
The best scorers
Zenit: Billy Baron (27), Alex Poythress (21 + 6 rebounds), Arturas Gudaitis (14 + 9 rebounds)
UNICS: Mario Hezonja (18 + 9 rebounds), Lorenzo Brown (17 + 5 assists), Isaiah Canaan (12)
Game progress
The intrigue in the battle for the 1st place persisted by the last game of this calendar year — having beaten Zenit, UNICS would have regained the 1st place and would have left for the New Year holidays in the rank of leader. The rosters of both teams were far from optimal: Zenit lost Jordan Mickey, and the Kazan team could not put John Brown III- one of the best defensive specialists in Europe.
Zenit, which is among the Top-3 in the League in number of 3-pointers made, immediately began to take advantage. The first 9 points of the hosts were scored from behind the arc — Jordan Loyd scored and Sergey Karasev scored twice. Although UNICS managed to regain the defense on the perimeter, Zenit took over the initiative. The first 10 minutes ended with a score of 25:21- the St. Petersburg team lead.
The 2nd quarter became even more effective, and the key player was Billy Baron. He successfully scored from behind the arc, then immediately scored the lay-up. The teams staged a real shootout: every time Zenit broke away in the score, UNICS returned to the game with Marco Spissu or Isaiah Canaan shots. And the guests did not have any arguments against Baron’s hot hand yet: in the middle of the quarter, Zenit player guard scored 2 more 3-pointers in a row, and his free-throws for the first time made Zenit’s lead double-digit – 48:38. UNICS again managed to reduce the gap, but seconds before the buzzer for the halftime, Baron scored another 3-pointer into the locker room – 57:48.
After the halftime, the Kazan team entered with a determined attitude. Lorenzo Brown’s sniper exploits reduced Zenit’s lead to a minimum, after which Andrey Vorontsevich drawed the score — 59:59. Classic basketball swings began: one side or the other took the lead. And yet Zenit began to regain the lead. Arturas Gudaitis initiated 8:0 guests’ run. By the beginning of the last quarter, Zenit again led by 10 points.
The key point
In the 4th quarter, UNICS’ strengths finally dried up due to the short rotation. Alex Poythress and Mindaugas Kuzminskas continued the run started at the end of the previous quarter, bringing Zenit’s lead to 16 points. The last attempt to comeback was made by UNICS in the middle of the quarter. But Gudaitis immediately stopped it and Baron increase the St,Petersburg team dominance. UNICS ends the year in 2nd place in the standings.Zenit now is drew with CSKA in W/L ratio.
Hero
Billy Baron. Coming off the bench and spending only 22 minutes on the floor, Baron became the most resultative player of the game and updated his personal best — before that he scored 26 points.
Numbers
97. For the first time this season, UNICS let opponents score more than 90 points per game. The previous Kazan team’s worst result was against Loko in Krasnodar – 87 points.
Comments
Xavier Pascual, Zenit Head Coach :
– Thank you to all the fans who came today. We are happy about this win. I think it was a great game, both teams played at their maximum, despite the fact that both we and UNICS played after the Euroleague games. At the beginning of the 3rd quarter, we lost control of the game a little, let UNICS to came close in the score. However, we played wisely, played well and won this important game. It is an honor for me to celebrate my 100th game as Zenit Head Coach with the win at home.
Velimir Perasovic,UNICS Head Coach:
– Congratulations to Zenit on the win. We lost offensive rebounds: Zenit took 18 rebounds, some of them were at the most key moments, after which they scored easy points. We worked well offensively, but our defense didn’t work as well as it needed to at the right moment.
What’s next
Zenit: road game against PARMA on anuary 4.
UNICS: home game versus Nizhny Novgorod on January 16
Photo 
