Zenit held back Enisey at home – 89:80 (21:24, 30:14, 18:17, 20:25).
Top scorers
Zenit: Austin Hollins (21), Gustavo Ayon (13), Vladislav Trushkin (12), Will Thomas (11), Mateusz Ponitka (10 + 6 rebounds).
Enisey: Tomislav Zubcic (19), Denis Zakharov (17), Ilia Popov (10), Dustin Hogue (10 + 7 rebounds + 3 steals).
Story
The guests demonstrated their attitude from the very beginning. Thanks to Popov and Zubcic, Enisey took the lead. It seemed that Austin Hollins got on court to break the game and his first actions helped Zenit regain control. At the same time, Enisey’s bench was good as well. Aggressive defense, baskets by Rebic, Hogue and Zakharov won the first period for Enisey – 24:21.
Aggressive defense was the key for the hosts to turn tables. Enisey scored only 14 in the second period while Saint Petersburg were gaining points thanks to small guys doing drives and big men working under the glass. Vladislav Trushkin finished the quarter with a series of three long range shots to ensure Zenit’s solid lead by the break – 51:38.
With Zubcic’s fast break and a couple of threes, the guests made it look like a challenge – 48:54. However, Zenit stopped the run as Hollins and Thomas built a double digit lead – 59:48.
The rest of the game was more or less balanced. Krasnoyarsk pressed the opponents, but Zenit destroyed every attempt to come back. The margin was stable at a level of 10-13 points.
Hero
Austin Hollins was Zenit’s main pick in offense. The guard scored the most points (21) and showed amazing field goal percentage: 8 of 10 (4 of 6 three-pointers).
Цифра
4 – этой победой «Зенит» прервал серию из четырех поражений подряд.
Comment
Главный тренер «Зенита» Жоан Пласа:
– Думаю, что даже в этом сезоне у нас были матчи, когда мы играли намного лучше. Просто раньше не удавалось победить, а сегодня мы смогли это сделать, наконец-то прервали эту неудачную домашнюю серию. Когда ты проигрываешь столько матчей дома, ты не можешь контролировать свои мысли, ты начинаешь думать, что играешь хуже, чем оно есть на самом деле. И тогда случаются серии поражений… Хочу, чтобы люди понимали: мы создаем привычки. Создание привычек для игроков, для клуба, для всех — это нелегкий процесс. Но мы все — и игроки, и штаб — верим в то, что мы делаем. Верим на 100% в свою ежедневную работу. Надеюсь, что в скором времени мы будем показывать еще более качественный баскетбол.
Zenit head coach Joan Plaza:
I think even this season we’ve had games where we played better. It’s just that we coudn’t win, but tonight we got it. Finally we won at home. When you have a losing streak at home you can’t control your mind, you start thinking you play worse than you really do. And that’s where the defeats come from…
I wan’t people to know that we create our patterns. It’s a complex process to build a pattern for the players, club, for everyone. But we all – the players and coaches – believe in what we do. We beleive 100% in our everyday work. I hope our basketball gets even better soon.
Enisey head coach Drazen Anzulovic:
Congrats to Zenit. They were more aggressive, and they were good in the open game. We lost ball control in the second quarter, and were bad in the defense. I guess that was the key to this game. We tried to come back in the second quarter even cut down to 6 points, but didn’t maintain ball control, organize the offensive plays. Well, we didn’t get close enough to win in the end.
What’s next
Zenit: November 25 at UNICS
Enisey: November 17 at Tsmoki-Minsk
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