Zenit scores 100 Points and crushes Samara at home
Zenit secured a confident victory, defeating Samara on the home court. The Petersburg team immediately took control and gave their opponent no chance to mount any challenge. Here's a detailed recap of the match.
Team captain Sergey Karasev, along with Trent Frazier, Dwayne Bacon, Andrey Vorontsevich and Vince Hunter, started the game against the Volga team.
The tip-off went to the hosts, and in their first attack, Vorontsevich opened the scoring with an accurate three-pointer from the corner. Bacon quickly capitalized on the guests' mistakes, adding two mid-range shots and a three-pointer. A 10:0 run forced Samara's coaching staff to call an early timeout, but it had no effect: right after the break, Zenit intercepted the ball, and Hunter sped off on a fast break, then scored two free throws. Samara managed to get on the scoreboard thanks to a powerful drive by Viktor Kashin, and soon after, young talent Egor Amosov scored from long range. However, their brief surge didn’t change the overall picture — Bacon (who was unstoppable in the first quarter) and Hunter continued to extend the hosts' lead. Coming off the bench, Okaro White added a two-pointer, and Alex Poythress first converted a 2+1 play, then finished an alley-oop assist from Alexey Shved. Georgy Zhbanov hit two accurate three-pointers (one just before the buzzer) and made a powerful drive on a fast break. By the end of the first quarter, Zenit led 32:14.
In the second quarter, Samara tried to play more aggressively, running extended possession attacks, but the blue-whites continued to dominate and increase their lead. The key weapon for the hosts at the start of the quarter was fast breaks, where Zhbanov confidently finished the attacks. The appearance of Russian players Zakharov, Ryzhov and Shcherbenev added freshness to Zenit's offense, and the lead quickly exceeded 30 points. Samara then had an 8:0 run, which briefly slowed down Zenit's momentum. But after the return of Frazier, Hunter and Shved to the court, the hosts picked up their pace again. At the end of the first half, Vorontsevich made a precise shot at the buzzer, pushing the score to 57:32 in favor of the Petersburg team.
A productive drive by Bacon opened the second half of the game, but in the next attack, Samara responded with another long-range shot from forward Gleb Goldyrev, who had already made his third three-pointer of the day. Without hesitation, the blue-whites continued the trend of three-pointers, and Zhbanov and Frazier both hit from beyond the arc, bringing the lead back to 30 points. The gap continued to widen, and Zenit delighted their fans with spectacular moments: Poythress' dunk, White's three-pointer, and Zhbanov's incredible performance. By the end of the third period, the Russian guard had 100% accuracy, making 4 two-pointers and 4 three-pointers in 11 minutes on the court, setting a career-high for scoring. Before the final period, the score at the CSC Arena was 87:44.
The intrigue in the final quarter was about who would score the hundredth point for Zenit. It became clear quickly: in the fifth minute, Egor Ryzhov dunked the ball, bringing the team's points to triple digits. In the remaining part of the game, the blue-whites increased their lead to an astronomical "+58". The final score was 115:57.
The top performers for Zenit were Dwayne Bacon (23 points + 7 rebounds + 1 assist), Georgy Zhbanov (20 points + 1 steal) and Alexey Shved (11 points + 9 assists + 2 steals).
Zenit remains in second place in the VTB United League standings, with 29 wins and 5 losses, tied with the leading CSKA. In the next regular-season game, Xavi Pascual’s team will face Lokomotiv Kuban away. The game will take place on March 9 at the Basket-Hall in Krasnodar. The game starts at 17:00 St. Petersburg time.
