Zenit defeats Mersin in first preseason friendly game
Today, August 31, in Antalya at the Gloria Sports Arena, Zenit played its first preseason friendly game ahead of the 2025/26 season. The match against Mersin, a team competing in the top division of the Turkish championship, ended with a victory for the Blue-White-Sky Blues 84:82.
The best players for the St. Petersburg side were Alex Poythress (16 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist), Vladislav Emchenko (14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal), and Neno Dimitrijevic (13 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal).
Zenit forwards Andre Roberson and Pavel Zemskiy, as well as farm-team center Ilya Krivykh — currently training with the main squad in Antalya — did not take part in the game.
After the match, Zenit guard Vladislav Emchenko shared his thoughts on the victory.
— Vladislav, you started with a win. Tell us about your debut game, what are your impressions?
— The first game is always one of the most emotional. We’d been waiting for it, missed it, because practices are one thing, games are another. First of all, I’m glad that both teams came through without injuries, since in a first game there’s always a lot of adrenaline and desire to push forward. Especially with a new team — communication isn’t fully established yet. Secondly, of course, I’m happy that we won. We always play to win, so congratulations to everyone. I’m sure a lot of people were supporting us from the other side of the screen as well — thank you, we felt it. Congratulations on the win. Yes, there were plenty of moments with mistakes or miscommunication, but I think we still did very well. Let’s focus on the positives — and there were many. You could see the ball movement, meaning the preparation time before this game was well spent. We worked on certain plays and today they gave us an advantage — we made our shots and won the endgame. We did lose some focus due to fatigue, which allowed the opponent to catch up, but I’m glad we held on to the lead we built earlier and won.
— Only Alex Poythress scored more points than you. Did you set yourself the goal of scoring so many today?
— No, I didn’t. Like I said, I just did whatever it took to help the team win. When I’m open, I shoot. When I see an open teammate, I pass. I’m glad I managed to score today. But I hope I didn’t just put up 14 points — I also passed and rebounded. The most important thing is the team victory. In the first half, it was clear we had a lot of energy, we were running, which is why we went into halftime up by 15. We built that lead thanks to good defense, rebounds, and fast breaks. In the second half, like I said, fatigue set in, we got a bit lazier, and as a result we had fewer fast breaks. The opponent started to catch up, and we slowed down a bit — that’s why the lead began to shrink.
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During their training camp in Turkey the Blue-White-Sky Blues have two more scheduled friendlies: on September 2 at 16:30 against Turk Telekom, and on September 4 at 17:00 against Besiktas.
