Zenit begins road trip with a 100 points and rout in Samara

The Blue-White-Sky Blues secured a convincing away victory over Samara — 63:100. For Zenit, the Round 35 regular season game of the VTB United League became the first of three matches in a Volga region road trip. Here are the key moments from today’s game recap.

On the eve of the match, it was announced that Zenit forward Georgy Zhbanov would be sidelined for approximately 3-4 weeks due to an adductor injury in his right thigh. On the day of the game against Samara, it also became known that the Blue-White-Sky Blues’ captain Trent Frazier would miss the game for medical reasons.

Zenit’s starting lineup looked as follows: Johnny Juzang, Xavier Moon, Ismaël Bako, Vladislav Emchenko, and Luka Šamanić.

Right from the start, Johnny showed a powerful burst of energy — the American guard immediately put the St. Petersburg team ahead by "+5", hitting a three-pointer and finishing with a dunk. Several more of his attempts from long range were unsuccessful. Overall, Zenit did not capitalize on all its chances early on, and by the middle of the first quarter the scoreboard showed 7:7. However, minute by minute, the visitors began to dictate the pace of the game. Points came from free throws, Uzinskiy and Shcherbenev performed well on the court, and by the first break the Blue-White-Sky Blues were confidently leading — 17:25.

Zenit opened the second quarter with a 9:2 run, forcing Samara’s coaching staff to call a timeout. However, the gap continued to grow and became overwhelming by halftime. At one point, Zenit went on an 18:0 run, building a 28-point advantage by the end of the first half — 23:51.

Zenit finished today’s game with a 63:100 victory. The team’s 100th point was scored by Andrey Martiuk, who made two free throws with just under two minutes remaining. It is also worth noting that every player listed on Zenit’s roster scored points in the game. The team’s top scorer today was Johnny Juzang — 16 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

Next up for Zenit is Avtodor. The game against the black-whites will take place in Saratov on April 2, with tip-off at 18:00 St. Petersburg time.

The final away game for theBlue-White-Sky Blues in the 2025/26 VTB United League regular season will be against Pari Nizhny Novgorod on April 5 at 15:00.