Victory in the final away game of the regular season

Zenit secured a confident win over Pari Nizhny Novgorod in the 37th round of the VTB United League regular season. The match ended with a score of 72:88 in favor of the Blue-White-Sky Blues. For Dejan Radonjić’s squad, the game against the Volga team was the last guest one in the 2025/26 regular season. More details are in our report.

From the first seconds on the court at the Nagorny Arena, the St. Petersburg lineup featured Johnny Juzang, Andrey Martiuk, Xavier Moon, Vladislav Emchenko, and Luka Šamanić.

The start was entirely dominated by the visitors. Zenit immediately took control of the game and went on an impressive 2:13 run, with every member of the starting five contributing points. However, after the first quarter reached its halfway mark, the St. Petersburg defense began to falter, and Nizhny Novgorod increasingly converted their chances, at one point closing the gap to just 4 points. Long-range shots by Emchenko and Vorontsevich, along with a free throw by Roberson just before the break, helped the Blue-White-Sky Blues restore a comfortable lead — 16:25 in favor of Zenit at the end of the first ten minutes.

The next period saw Dejan Radonjić’s squad start strongly again, with another 2:13 surge. Five minutes in, the lead reached 20 points, and only then did the hosts start scoring again. The first half ended in a mutual scoring battle. Zenit’s trio of Juzang, Šamanić, and Roberson performed excellently, while Pari NN was led by Lukács and Zotkin, hitting both from close range and beyond the arc. The teams went into halftime with the same 30:50 scoreline.

After the break, the Volga team played more aggressively. This quarter was largely dictated by them. While Zenit struggled with shooting, Pari Nizhny Novgorod kept knocking down three-pointers, with Hungarian forward Norbert Lukács leading the charge — by the end of the game, he would score 21 points. The quarter (23:17) went to the Nizhny Novgorod side, who managed to reduce the deficit to 53:67.

In the fourth quarter, the pace of the game slowed down completely. Both teams ran extended positional attacks, with Zenit increasingly finishing through their big men. The Volga team’s momentum from the previous quarter faded, while the Blue-White-Sky Blues side maintained control and kept their opponents at a distance. The match ended with a confident victory for the St. Petersburg team — 72:88.

The top performers for Zenit today were Luka Šamanić (23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 1 block), Johnny Juzang (16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal), and Xavier Moon (10 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 block).

In the 2025/26 VTB United League regular season, Zenit has three games remaining, all to be held in Saint Petersburg at the CSC Arena. The team will face Uralmash on April 7, UNICS on April 15, and CSKA on April 22. Tickets are available on the club’s official website.