«Astana» was defeated in St. Petersburg

Zenit scored Astana in the final match of this year — 99:72 (19:17, 18:18, 36:17, 26:20).
 
Despite all the efforts of Artyom Vihrov (15 out of 19 points of St. Petersburg team in the starting 10-minute) in the first half, «Astana» managed to hold back Zenit pressing. The turning point came in the third quarter, when the owners of parquet markedly increased their defense and were more likely to use in fast attacks. Vikhrov scored a spectacular foul ball (49:42) from the middle of the court; from this moment the hosts were feeling daring and became unstoppable. Zenit secured an advantage of breakthrough three-pointer by Pavel Sergeev and Aaron White, and gripped a double-digit advantage ever after. Thus, Zenit interrupted a series of two home defeats and caught up in pursuit of the leaders.
 
The most productive:
 
«Zenith»: Artyom Vihrov (22), Aaron White (19 + 9 rebounds), Kyle Landry (18).
 
«Astana»: Roderick Odom (18 + 8 rebounds), Robert Lowry (16 + 6 assists), Usman Kruballi (8 + 7 rebounds).
 
Head coach of «Zenith» Vasily Karasev:
- Astana is a very good team, and during almost the whole game the team struggled on equal terms with us. This victory, and especially with a large margin, is particularly important for us after our defeat to UNICS and «Locomotive». Today we managed to play the type of basketball that we want to play: aggressive defense and quick transition offense. In the first half, we didn’t made some shots at that speed, but our work paid off in the second half.
 
Head coach of «Astana» Ilias Papatheodorou:
 – We tried to compete and managed to do that for 25 minutes, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t keep up with the tempo and aggressiveness that Zenit imposed on us. Our opponent was better today and deserved to win. But we gave everything we had. The guys fought to the end.
 
The next match of «Astana» will be hold after the New Year, on January 8. The capital team will host «Nizhniy Nowogrod» in the frames of the VTB United League.