Zenit defeat Zielona Gora on the road – 94:74 (23:14, 30:24, 22:20, 19:16).
Top scorers
Zielona Gora: Geoffrey Grosselle (23+8 rebounds), Kris Richard (13), Janis Berzins (12), Iffe Lundberg (10)
Zenit: Arturas Gudaitis (20+5 rebounds), Billy Baron (14), Will Thomas (10), Mateusz Ponitka (10+5 rebounds)
Story
After PARMA’s loss to Enisey Zenit remained the only team that haven’t lost yet. Of course, Zenit is looking forward to extend the winning streak up to 7 games. The guests took the initiative quickly, and although the Poles managed to cut the difference to few possessions a few times Billy Baron increased the lead to 9 points by the end of the quarter. The second quarter started with Zenit powerful offense. Baron who wasn’t really bright in the first quarter scored 3 consecutive long-range bombs. Zenit’s lead turned double digits – 38:25. Mateusz Ponitka summed up the first half hitting a shot against their fellow countrymen – 53:38.
After the half time Xavi Pascual’s team continued to push. Zielona Gora pulled themselves together in the end of the third, 2 accurate threes by Kris Richard turned 22-point gap to 16-point. The last quarter started with mini-run 6:0, it was inspired by hosts’ best player Geoffrey Grosselle. However, hosts’ hope for a comeback were destroyed by Arturas Gudaitis’ 8 points in a row. The offense run of Zan Tabak’s team was finished at that point, and Zenit easily made it to the victory, 6th victory in 6 games.
Hero
Arturas Gudaitis. Petersburg center duel with Geoffrey Grosselle was the jewel of the game. Although Zenit player scored less than his opponent it was his 8-point run that left no chance to Zielona Gora.
Stat
40:32 in favour of Zenit – points scored from the paint. Zenit and Zielona Gora scored a significant part of their points from the paint compensating for low three-pointers accuracy (both teams had 30%).
Comments
Zielona Gora head coach Zan Tabak:
— I think it was the first game in the season my team approached the wrong way. We were too afraid of our rivals. I’m not talking about 1 player, there were 4 or 5 of them.
Zenit head coach Xavier Pascual:
— Both teams showed good basketball: nice defense and transition. It was a beautiful game. I think that for us it was an improvement, we are in better shape. We weren’t prepared for the game against Olympiacos after such a big break. We are happy, we knew it would be tough to win here. We showed solid game in offense and defense, we are happy.
Next
Zielona Gora: November 14 at UNICS
Zenit: November 22 at Nizhny Novgorod
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