The youth team is set for an away series of games in Krasnodar

Zenit U21 has traveled to Krasnodar, where they will play a series of games against the local Lokomotiv Kuban-2. This upcoming matchup will be the first for Roman Knyazev's team after a short break in the regular season of the VTB United Youth League.

The Kuban team is currently in 8th place in the standings, with 14 wins and 20 losses. However, Lokomotiv has played only 34 games (the fewest in the regular season) and is still fighting for a playoff spot.

In their last four matches, also played on their home court, Lokomotiv Kuban-2 exchanged wins with PARMA-M (90:87 and 82:85), and this week they lost twice to CSKA Junior (73:89 and 68:110).

In terms of scoring, both teams show similar results: Lokomotiv averages 77.4 points per game, while Zenit U21 scores 77.1. As for block shots, the hosts are among the top 2 teams in the tournament, averaging 4.8 blocks per game.

The leader of the Kuban team is guard Ilya Grushevskiy, who averages 17 points, 5.8 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 30 minutes on the court.

The history of encounters between our teams includes 43 games: 26 wins for Lokomotiv Kuban-2 and 17 wins for blue-whites.

Zenit U21's head coach Roman Knyazev on the upcoming series in Krasnodar:

We hope to return to the physical condition we had at the beginning of the season. We have upcoming games against one of the tallest teams, with strong defenders as well. The games ahead will be challenging and interesting.

The matches will take place on March 2 and 3 in Krasnodar. Both games will start at 19:30 St. Petersburg time. Broadcast will be available on the VTB United Youth League website.