Astana came to St. Petersburg with just one victory after four matches, while Zenit won all of their previous four games. Thus, on the home site, the St. Petersburg team acted as the favourite. It is also worth noting that Devin Marble made his debut for our team in this VTB United League match.
The ball after the toss was won by the hosts, and in the very first attempt, the Petersburgers realized their throw and opened the score in the game. Michael Thompson, after a minute and a half of playing time, opened the score for the Kazakh team, and less than a minute later, Adonis Thomas equalized the score with an accurate three-pointer. However, Zenit was not going to stop and moved forward. The hosts recorded the next 4 minutes as an asset, successfully using all their chances and their advantage became double-digit. Our guys made quite a lot of losses at the end of attacks and as a result, our team's score increased very slowly. Zenit continued their successful game and by the end of the quarter, the St. Petersburg team reached + 15 in their lead. The final points in the first quarter were scored by Michael Thompson, who realized his attempt in the passage — 27:14. At the start of the second quarter, Devin Marble earned his first points in the VTB United League, scoring a three-pointer and scoring and one. After an accurate free throw from Devin, the gap of Astana was reduced to 9 points. Unfortunately, Astana was unable to use the momentum and by the middle of the quarter, the difference between Zenit was again equal to 15 points. But it should be noted that the hosts in the second quarter were not as effective as in the first one. Until the end of the first half of the game, precise throws by Michael Thompson, Adonis Thomas and Devin Marble reduced the gap to 11 points. Astana won the second quarter although with an advantage of only two points, thereby reducing the gap after the first ten minutes to eleven points — 38:27.
The situation was not catastrophic for Astana as an 11 point gap, in fact, this is not decisive yet. But the third quarter was extremely unsuccessful for the Kazakh team. The first half of the third quarter was ineffective for the team from St. Petersburg, in five minutes they were able to score only 6 points. And for Astana, these five minutes became simply terrible in terms of efficiency. Our players were unable to score a single point in five minutes, and the gap almost reached 20 points. Michael Thompson in the sixth minute finally opened the scoring for our team in this quarter. In the second half of the third quarter, Zenit more and more often scored accurately, but Astana could not boast of this. The gap between the teams grew and by the end of the quarter came close to 30 points. The huge gap of 28 points before the final quarter left little chances for Emil Rajkovic's team in this game. At the start of the fourth quarter, “Astana” was unable to do anything that could turn the tide of the game, and Zenit confidently approached the victory. Five minutes before the end, the gap for St.Petersburg reached 30 points. In this game, everything was already clear as day. The hosts were confidently playing their game without leaving the slightest chance for Astana. The performance of the Kazakh team was not at all up to par in this match, and our players reached the 50-point mark only a minute before the end. Thus, Zenith won a very confident victory with a score of 85:52.
If you look at the final data, then the main problem in this match was the implementation of shots: only 35% from an average distance and 27% from a long distance, by the way, for our opponents the same indicators stood at 52% of two-points and 45% for three-pointers. This is perhaps the main reason for our defeat today. In addition, Astana lost 27 against 42 rebounds.
Most productive:
- «Zenit» - Russians Anton Pushkov (13 points, 6 rebounds) and Andrey Zubkov (10 points and 9 rebounds) played excellently in the St. Petersburg team. Canadian Kevin Pangos also played very confidently with 14 points and 9 assists.
- «Astana» — many of our players simply did not play well today. Michael Thompson was perhaps the brightest in our squad today and became the most productive in both teams — 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists. Devin Marble showed good numbers in the opening — 13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. On account of Adonis Thomas 10 points and 4 rebounds.
Head coach of «Zenit» - Xavi Pascual:
- Thanks to the fans for being with us. We're happy to be back in the game after 24 days. It's a great feeling, everyone was looking forward to playing again at Sibur Arena with our fans. In general, the game went well, throughout the match we played defence very well. The main thing is that we managed to follow our tactics for the game. We made some mistakes in the attack. However, the players worked with full dedication and made every effort, which is not easy after such a long break.
Head coach of «Astana» — Emil Rajkovic:
- Congratulations to Zenit on the victory. It didn’t feel at all that our opponent hadn’t played for more than three weeks. The players were fresh, they were hungry, they gave it 100%. As for us, we played just a terrible game. We didn’t do anything that we have planned, we didn’t follow the tactics for the match. We still have a lot to improve, including physicality.
Consequences: Zenit strengthens its position in the first line of the standings with five wins in five matches, while Astana continues to occupy the tenth position of the rating with one victory.
Next match: On November 5, the capital's basketball players will play their next away match in the VTB United League, without returning home they will go to Tallinn where they will play with the local Kalev.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
