Zenit St. Petersburg defeated Parma Perm at home, 98-73 (21-17, 26-16, 25-24, 26-16).
Top Scorers
Zenit: Drew Gordon (27+14 reb), Demonte Harper (17), Nicolas Laprovittola (15+6 ast), Kyle Kuric (13+6 reb)
Parma: Codi Miller-McIntyre (16), Tre’ McLean (12+6 reb), Yanick Moreira (11+5 reb)
Story
Zenit returned home from a disappointing 34-point defeat in Kazan on Thursday, hoping to notch the first win of the season against Parma.
Despite being the season opener, the visitors looked sharp in the early going. Codi Miller-McIntyre and Yanick Moreira did most of the scoring, keeping Perm within two, 21-19, at the beginning of the 2nd quarter.
But the visitors had no answer once Zenit’s offense started clicking. St. Petersburg hit three 3-pointers in the 2nd quarter and the home team outscored Parma 26-16 to head into halftime with a 47-33 lead.
Drew Gordon took over in the 3rd quarter for Zenit. After scoring 12 in the first half, the American forward erupted for 13 points and five rebounds, giving his team a 19-point lead midway through the period.
Zenit never looked back, finishing with 98 points, a 38-point increase over the 60 points scored in Kazan. With the victory, Zenit improves to 1-1. Parma drops to 0-1.
. @zenitbasket vs. @parmabasket one minute highlights 📹 pic.twitter.com/xTg8pCB3By
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) October 8, 2017
Stat
17-9 – Zenit nearly doubled up Parma in assists. Despite showing some flashes of competitive basketball, the visitors have work to do sharing the ball.
Up Next
Zenit: October 15 vs. Astana
Parma: October 16 vs. Khimki
Snapshot
