Zenit beat Enisey on the road – 85:67 (16:17, 29:17, 25:20, 15:13).
Top scorers
Enisey: Tyus Battle (16), Leyton Hammonds (15 + 5 rebounds), Kerron Johnson (13 + 6 assists), Dustin Hogue (10).
Zenit: Vitaly Fridzon (15), Billy Baron (12 + 5 assists), Kevin Pangos (12 + 6 assists), Mateusz Ponitka (10 + 5 assists), Anton Pushkov (10 + 5 подборов).
Story
It was hard to expect the intrigue in the game between the first (Zenit) and the last (Enisey) teams. In the beginning the game was even. On the first minutes Kevin Pangos and K.C. Rivers took the the lead for Zenit via long range shots – 10:5. But in the middle of the game after Kerron Johnson and Tyus Battle successful actions the hosts were up – 11:10. In the tight game the Siberians looked good and managed to save the minimal lead by the second quarter – 17:16.
Первый данк в 2021-м – на счету Антона Пушкова из @zenitbasket 🔥 pic.twitter.com/E9pQ3IC8KI
— VTB League (@VTBUL) January 3, 2021
Slow positioning basketball continued in the second quarter. However, guests’ class advantage and the bench did its work. Vitaly Fridzon scored 9 points of the bench and Zenit took the momentum. Soon, other Petersburg leaders activated and Zenit’s lead became significant. By the half time Xavi Pascual’s squad were up by 11 – 45:34.
The guests didn’t stop. In the third quarter their shooters started to fire. Kevin Pangos, Mateusz Ponitka, Vitaly Fridzon and Billy Baron hit 7 shots from beyond the arc. Via this efficiency Zenit’s lead was 21 points in the end of the third – 70:49.
Key moment
Enisey made extraordinary comebacks multiple times this season. This game was very close to become another proof. By the end of the third the Siberians made a 9:0 run and cut the gap to 12 points – 58:70.
However, miracle hasn’t happened. Perfectly-timed time out and confident game by Arturas Gudaitis and Andrei Zubkov brought the comfortable lead back to Zenit – 76:60. Krasnoyarsk had no strength to pace up, thus the guests made it to the confident victory.
Hero
Vitaly Fridzon became the joker in Xavi Pascual’s roster. Experienced Russian made 4 out of 6 from the field (3 of 4 threes) and became the top scorer (15 points) and most efficient (17) player on the roster.
Stat
13 – Zenit remain the only League’s team that have never lost to Enisey. It is their 13th victory against the Siberians.
Comments
Enisey head coach Drazen Anzulovich:
– Congratulations to Zenit on the victory. The play the way we want to play. However, today we lacked quality and rotation players, 4 players haven’t played. We started the way we wanted. We were controlling the game and the momentum but we lacked rotation players to stick to the plan we had. The opponents are smart and were reading the game and we made lots of silly mistakes. We had fatigue problems, not all the players were ready to play after the illness. I hope, by the next game we will manage to recover.
Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual:
– I’d like to wish Enisey a good rest of the season, I really like the way they play and fight, they have excellent coach and their standings position doesn’t fit their level of game. I am sure that they will have many more good games. It was a good game for us as we were focused all game long. We were playing well both at offense and defense. Yes, we had some problems on boards but overall, it’s fair to say that we spent the game as we wanted to.
Next
Enisey: January 17 vs PARMA
Zenit: January 10 vs Avtodor
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