Zenit-2 loses to CSKA-2 in Moscow

The farm team of the Blue-White-Sky Blues lost to Moscow's CSKA-2 on the road with a score of 72:65. The match took place as part of the 11th round of the FONBET Super League regular season.

Throughout the game, the teams demonstrated a tight contest, but the hosts led on the scoreboard for most of the time. In the second quarter, the opponent managed to build a 10-point lead, which Zenit-2 was able to neutralize before the big break. However, in the second half, CSKA-2 maintained the initiative, consistently staying ahead, sometimes by just one possession. In the decisive stretch, the Moscow team managed to secure the victory.

After 11 matches, the Blue-White-Sky Blues sit in 7th place in the standings, with 6 wins and 5 losses to their name.

Oliver Popovic, Zenit-2 head coach:

Why did we lose? We had 15 turnovers, CSKA had 17 offensive rebounds. That's an awful lot. And also, our three-point shooting percentage was only 17%. We took bad shots, and that was the reason for the defeat. Sometimes we lacked concentration on defense, but the main thing was those 17 rebounds: 9 in the first half and 8 in the second. Because of that, they scored a lot of easy points.

Dmitry Chikishev, Zenit-2 guard:

Today we didn't execute many of the game plan instructions, defended poorly enough, and lost a lot of offensive rebounds. They had a lot of second-chance opportunities, which led to more free throws and more field goal attempts in general. Accordingly, that's why we lost. We also moved incorrectly on defense and missed a lot of three-pointers: we shot only 17%, though we usually shoot around 30%. Because of that, we couldn't pull out the win in the end today.

In the next round, the St. Petersburg team will play away against Tambov. The match will take place on December 18 at 19:00.