Zenit U19 — champions of the 2024/25 СYBL Championship
Throughout the entire Final Eight of Children's Youth Basketball League, Zenit U19 remained undefeated. In the group stage, they beat FOK Meshchersky (94:65), Rusichi-CYBL (94:54) and Zenit 2008 (99:63). Blue-whites second team, led by Petar Marinkovic, finished the tournament in eighth place.
In the semifinals, Zenit U19 confidently defeated MBA-CYBL (88:60) and advanced to the final, where they faced the CSKA-CYBL. For the third year in a row, the title was decided in a showdown with Moscow team. Just like last year, the blue-whites came out on top, successfully defending their title as Russian U19 champions. From the opening minutes, Dmitry Nikolaev’s team took a comfortable lead and maintained control until the final buzzer, sealing the victory at 89:74.
Final Standings:
1. Zenit U19 (St. Petersburg)
2. CSKA-CYBL (Moscow)
3. Rusichi-CYBL (Kursk)
4. MBA-CYBL (Moscow)
5. Samara-CYBL (Samara region)
6. FOK Meshchersky (Nizhny Novgorod)
7. UNICS-CYBL (Kazan)
8. Zenit 2008 (St. Petersburg)
The MVP of the Final Eight was blue-whites guard Alexander Porotnikov. In the decisive match against CSKA-CYBL, he was the top scorer for his team, putting up 27 points.
Zenit U19 guard Dmitry Chikishev also entered the symbolic top five of the tournament.
Additionally, Zenit 2009, the third team from St. Petersburg, concluded its run in the CYBL Championship a day earlier in Nizhny Novgorod. Under the leadership of Vladislav Shumkov, they won their last three games in the mini-tournament and finished in 29th place overall.
Congratulations to the blue-whites on an excellent end to the season!
