Zenit defeated MBA at home — 87:62 (22:15, 26:14, 14:17, 25:16).
The best scorers:
Zenit: Dmitriy Kulagin (22), Richard Solomon (12 + 8 rebounds + 3 steals)
MBA: Evgeny Voronov (18), Anton Pushkov (16)
Game progress
The reigning champion and the brightest League newcomer had 7 wins. In the standings, the teams were neighbours, so the Moscow team could make it to the Top-3.
The guests started actively. Evgeny Voronov was the fired up his team at the start: the former Zenit captain scored 10 points in a row, and MBA led 12:7. But the Moscow team offense stopped and Zenit gradually began to level the game. Dmitriy Kulagin dunk equalized the score. The St. Petersburg team did not calm down on this and made a 10:3 run — Kulagin and Joe Thomasson became the key players of this segment and the Russian guard also scored a three-point buzzer at the end of the quarter. The hosts finished the first quarter leading the score — 22:15.
Zenit started the second quarter powerfully again, striving to immediately secure a lead. Sergey Monia and Vitalii Fridzon scored three-pointers. MBA coaching staff took a timeout, but it did not help to bring down the St. Petersburg team offensive potential – after a minute pause, Zenit continued to gain the lead. By the beginning of the second half, it was already 21 points — 50:29.
Surely at this moment MBA fans were hoping for Zenit – Loko game, where the St. Petersburg team missed a 24-point lead. But Xavi Pascual team made conclusions from that game. Although the guests managed to reduce the difference to 11-12 points during the third quarter, the St. Petersburg team with Dmitry Kulagin immediately made a comfortable lead. 4 minutes before the end, Kulagin made the team lead 21 points with another two-pointer. Zenit wins the third game in a row and leaves MBA behind.
Hero
Dmitriy Kulagin. Zenit guard gave the important boost to Zenit offense from the bench. As a result, Kulagin became the best scoring player of the game and was close to repeating the season high, which he had against CSKA — 24 points.
Numbers
The St. Petersburg team bench scored 62 points — the same as the entire Moscow team. Each of Zenit benchers scored at least 5 points.
What’s next
Zenit: home game againstSamara ON November 24
MBA: home game versus PARMA-PARI on November 25
