Zenit U21 will host UNICS-2 on home court

The Blue-White-Sky Blues is preparing to face Kazan’s UNICS-2 as part of the home round of the VTB United Youth League. The games will take place on November 10 at 13:00 and November 11 at 14:00 on the court of the Zenit Basketball Academy (Severnaya Road, 12). Admission is free!

After 14 games, our opponent ranks 9th in the standings with 7 wins. At the start of the season, UNICS-2 has alternated between successes and setbacks. The regular season began for the Kazan team with two away losses to CSKA Junior, but this was followed by a seven-game winning streak. The streak ended in the second match against Astana Zhastar, after which Andrey Kibenko’s team lost all subsequent games against MBA-MAI-Junior and SSOR-Lokomotiv Kuban.

It is worth noting that both Zenit U21 and UNICS-2 feature two of the league’s best point guards. The Blue-White-Sky Blues guard averages 6.0 assists per game, while Kazan’s guard Artem Nikitin, who played for the St. Petersburg children's youth team last season, has 5.3 assists per game.

Throughout the history of the Youth League confrontations, the teams have met 48 times, with statistics favoring the hosts: Zenit U21 has 35 wins, while the team from Tatarstan has 13.

Zenit U21 guard Maxim Rudko shared his thoughts ahead of the two-game series against Kazan’s UNICS-2:

Our mindset before the games is combative. Just a couple of days ago, we finished a series with Nizhny Novgorod, so we are in game shape. UNICS-2 is a physically strong team and runs the transition game well. They have many different defensive schemes, so we are preparing for everything at once. We will try to correct the mistakes we made in previous games and show good basketball!

The broadcast of both matches will be available on the VTB United Youth League website as well as on VK Video.