Astana (3-11) went into the match on a four-game losing streak that pushed them out of the playoff zone to 10th place. Zenit (12-4) is involved in the fight for the first line.
The first minutes passed in an equal fight, but the St. Petersburg team showed that they were able to steadily replenish the points piggy bank through the three-second zone, where Jordan Mickey and Alex Poythress felt confident. When the starting quarter reached the equator, the guests also turned on the defense with the activation of snipers in the person of Sergei Karasev and Jordan Loyd. Zenit had a powerful 5-minute stretch, which won with a score of 17:5 and got a double-digit advantage.
The second quarter was quieter. Blue-white-blue played in a row, controlling the development of events. By the big break Miki converted 6 out of 6 from the game and scored 14 points, the Russian team converted 80% of 2-pointers and led 48:34.
Key moment: Zenit finally removed all the questions in 5 minutes after the change of sides. The recipe for success was the same. Pitertsev reliably acted in their own half, and in the attack they found a balance between hits from snipers (Karasev, Billy Baron) and the actions of the duo Poythress — Mickey. By the middle of the third quarter, the guests were leading 60:40 and in the remaining time they did not let anyone doubt their advantage.
«Zenith» (13-4) thanks to the victory approached the minimum distance to the divisions of the 1st place UNICS (14-3) and CSKA (14-3), «Astana» missed the opportunity to overtake the 8th «Enisey».
Most productive: Skylar Spencer (10 + 8 rebounds), Rustam Murzagaliev (10 + 6 assists), Antonio Campbell (5 + 7 rebounds).
Astana head coach — Dejan Parezhanin:
— Today we tried to play strong, tried to close the three-second zone, but we didn't succeed. The problems were
us on defense, we allowed a lot of open shots. Zenit is an experienced team that immediately punished us for our mistakes. Many thanks to the fans of Almaty — it was a pleasure for us to play with such great support.
What's next: March 30 on the road with Lokomotiv-Kuban.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
