Zenit defeats Uralmash in St. Petersburg
Zenit claimed a home victory over Uralmash with a score of 91:86. The game took place as part of the 5th round of the VTB United League regular season. Read more about the match in our report.
Zenit’s starting five: Georgy Zhbanov, Levi Randolph, Alex Poythress, Andrey Vorontsevich, and Vladislav Emchenko. Sergey Karasev, Neno Dimitrijevic, and Andre Roberson missed today’s game. However, Zenit Basketball Academy pruduct Mikhail Dulkay, who trained with the main squad this week, was included in the lineup, and guard Trent Frazier returned to the roster after recovering from injury.
At the start of the game, the visitors from Yekaterinburg made a strong 8:0 run, quickly taking a comfortable lead and holding onto it for a while. Zenit’s first points came from Vorontsevich at the free-throw line, but soon former Zenit player Timofey Gerasimov scored 2+3 to increase his team’s advantage. The hosts responded with a long-range shot from Shcherbenev and slowly began to recover from the early knockdown. The 11-point gap persisted for some time, but two dunks by Andrey Martiuk and a three-pointer from Trent Frazier near the end of the quarter showed that Zenit was back in the game — 18:25 after the first ten minutes.
It took the St. Petersburg side just 1 minute and 20 seconds to tie the score in the next quarter: Martiuk scored on a drive, Vorontsevich hit from deep, and Frazier converted both free throws. However, the visitors didn’t give up easily — Rostislav Vergun’s team kept up the pressure on Zenit’s defense, repeatedly converting their chances and pulling ahead again by six. Midway through the quarter, Zenit finally took control of the game: Emchenko’s three-pointer gave them their first lead of the night. Uralmash managed to tie the score a few more times, but Zenit went into halftime leading 45:42.
At the start of the third quarter, both teams fought hard for every possession, applying maximum pressure on each other. The score changed almost every moment. After a 5:0 run from Uralmash, Aleksander Sekulic’s squad quickly regained momentum and began to build their lead. The turning point came with accurate three-pointers from Zhbanov and Emchenko, allowing Zenit to pull ahead by double digits. Before the final quarter, the scoreboard at CSC Arena showed 72:62 in favor of Zenit.
In the closing minutes, Zenit kept their opponents at a distance and, unlike in the previous quarter, focused on mid-range shots while largely ignoring three-pointers. It seemed like a confident win was secured, but in the final minute Uralmash scored 10 straight points, cutting the deficit to just five with 30 seconds remaining. The tense finish was filled with tactical fouls and timeouts, but the victory ultimately went to the Blue-White-Sky Blues . Final score — 91:86.
Zenit’s top performers were Levi Randolph (17 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound), Georgy Zhbanov (14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), and Andrey Martiuk (14 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block).
In the next round of the regular season, Zenit will face PariNN away. The game against the Nizhny Novgorod team will take place on October 24 and will start at 19:00.
