Zenit concludes the regular season with an away victory
Zenit secured a confident victory over Astana on the road in the final round of the 2024/25 VTB United League regular season. The details of the last game of Xavi Pascual's team before the start of the playoffs are in our report.
In the starting five for Zenit were Denis Zakharov, Andrey Vorontsevich, Trent Frazier, Dwayne Bacon and Vince Hunter.
Zenit started the game with a powerful run — 12:0. The Petersburg team played solid defense and executed effective offensive combinations: drives by the trio Frazier-Hunter-Bacon and a three-pointer from Vorontsevich gave them a comfortable lead at the start. However, during a timeout, the Astana coaching staff managed to shake up their players — the hosts became more active and gradually reduced the deficit. The leader in attack was T.J. Starks. The American guard scored 9 points in the first quarter and significantly energized the Kazakh team's game. Soon, Zenit's lead evaporated as if it had never existed — young forward Ilya Postov reduced the gap to three points with a precise mid-range shot. In the final moments of the period, Zhbanov made a free throw, Shcherbenev hit a three-pointer, but at the last second, Vadim Shcherbak answered with a three-pointer from Astana — 16:20 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter began with a long shot from Pestov. Astana's deficit became minimal, and the Kazakh team clearly showed that their comeback in the previous segment was no fluke. The game's pace noticeably increased, and the teams exchanged successful attacks, leveling out the play. Every attempt by Zenit to pull ahead was immediately met with resistance from the opponent. In response to Karasev's three-pointers, Hunter's dunk, and Shved's drive, Astana answered with successful plays from their leaders — Starks and Simonov. Toward the end of the quarter, the Kazakhs evened the score, but a put-back from Poythress allowed the visitors to maintain their lead before halftime — 40:43.
At the beginning of the third quarter, the hosts still tried to apply pressure: Starks scored five consecutive points, including an "and-one" and a three-pointer. However, soon Astana's shooting faltered, and their defense broke down. Zenit players increasingly took advantage of their opponent's mistakes, easily breaking through the defense and organizing fast breaks. Hunter stood out especially, dominating under the basket. Attempts by Gleb Plotnikov to restore the game's rhythm with timeouts were unsuccessful — by the middle of the quarter, the visitors' lead exceeded 15 points, and by its end, it was close to being a blowout. The scoreboard read 49:75.
Even at the end of the previous quarter, Denis Zakharov scored his first points of the day with a three-pointer, after which all 10 Zenit players had appeared in the scorebook. The final segment was fully controlled by the visitors, and Shcherbenev hit the century mark, running a fast break after his own steal. Zenit calmly brought the game to their twentieth consecutive victory — 67:101.
The top scorers for Zenit today were Vince Hunter (19 points + 5 rebounds + 4 steals + 1 block), Alex Poythress (13 points + 8 rebounds + 1 block), Alexey Shved (12 points + 8 assists + 1 steal) and Andrey Vorontsevich (12 points + 5 assists + 4 rebounds + 2 steals).
In the quarterfinals, Xavi Pascual's team will face the winner of Game 3 of the play-in round. The first two playoff games will take place on April 22 and 24 in St. Petersburg at the CSC Arena. Both games will start at 19:30 local time. Information about ticket and subscription sales will be published later.
