Zenit-2 lost to Kupol in the final moments

The Blue-White-Sky Blues’ farm team was defeated away by Kupol Rodniki with a score of 82:81. The game took place on November 20 in Izhevsk as part of the 9th round of the FONBET Super League regular season.

For most of the game, Zenit’s players were in the lead, but in the final quarter Kupol-Rodniki managed to close the gap, and the outcome was decided by a last-second shot from the home team.

The most productive players for Saint Petersburg were Egor Evstafiev (16 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals), Ivan Prokopenko (15 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist), and Daniil Ginko (13 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds).

Oliver Popovic, Zenit-2 head coach:

We allowed 13 offensive rebounds on our own end and committed 15 turnovers. That’s too much if you want to win. In the fourth quarter, we lacked focus on defense, we lacked focus on defensive rebounding. And on the last rebound—they grabbed the ball before taking the shot, and that’s how they scored. So today our biggest issues were rebounding and turnovers.

Artem Khodorich, Zenit-2 guard:

In the first half everything we had prepared for the game worked. We followed the coach’s instructions, which is why we went into halftime with a +8 lead. In the second half we failed to execute the game plan, and because of that the opponent immediately got back into the game. It felt like they had more energy, more desire, and the crowd was pushing them forward.

Zenit’s farm team will play its next game after the international break. The match against Grozny’s Dynamo will take place on December 4 at 19:00, away.