Farm team will host Yugra

Tomorrow, January 31, Zenit-2 will face Yugra from Surgut in the 16th round of the FONBET Super League regular season. The game will take place on the court of the Blue-White-Sky Blues Basketball Academy (Severnaya Road, 12) and will tip off at 19:00 St. Petersburg time. Admission is free for all fans!

This matchup will already be the fourth head-to-head meeting between the teams this season. The first-round Super League game ended in an impressive comeback victory for Zenit-2 after trailing by 22 points. That was followed by a two-game series in the Gazprombank Russian Cup, where the winner was decided only in overtime of the second game in St. Petersburg — the Blue-White-Sky Blues advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time in Academy's history. Now Yugra returns to the Northern Capital, this time for a Super League contest.

Unlike the St. Petersburg side, the visitors have played two more games and currently sit fifth in the standings with 11 wins and 6 losses. Oliver Popović’s team, meanwhile, has 8 wins in 15 games and occupies ninth place overall.

In their last 10 FONBET Super League games, the Siberian team has suffered just one defeat — a 63:79 loss to Khimki — while also defeating league leaders CBK, reigning champions Temp-SUMZ, and BARS-RGEU, which has already withdrawn from the tournament (games against them are not counted in the standings). However, it is worth noting that all of these matches were played on Artem Olkhov’s team’s home court, which has been an important factor in their recent success.

Zenit-2 forward Egor Evstafiev — ahead of tomorrow’s game:

We’re approaching the game against Yugra in a fighting mood. It’s our fourth game against them — last year it was the same situation with CSKA. Overall, Surgut has made huge progress over the course of the season, and now it’s a completely different team compared to the beginning. We’re continuing our preparation. The players are the same, but the attitude toward the team is completely different. We’ll try to win despite all the new challenges. Of course, we’re expecting the fans. There was a great atmosphere at the Cup game in St. Petersburg, and we’d love to recreate that.

The match broadcast will be available on the website of the Russian Basketball Federation.