Trent Frazier on his 200th game and the victory over UNICS

Blue-White-Sky Blues' press service spoke with the captain of the main team Trent Frazier — for the American guard, the second game of the VTB United League semifinal against UNICS (69:78) was his milestone 200th appearance for Zenit.

— Trent, you started the season with your 150th game in the Supercup, and now, in the decisive stage of the championship, you are playing your 200th match for the Blue-White-Sky Blues. Share your emotions about reaching this new milestone.

— It's an honor to be able to go out there every night and put that Zenit jersey on and try to give my all to represent the club in the best way. It's special to me. I know from day one when I came here, I enjoyed it. The club, people welcomed me with open arms. They support me a lot. So I'm happy. It feels good, especially to get a win today on the road. It feels good. I think the 200 game is very important, consecutive to be on one team, to get in this amazing club. It's an honor, so it's very special to me.

— Three years ago, when you came to Zenit, could you have imagined that you would play 200 games for the club and become captain?

I was not looking at, I was not, I would not think that would be the case if I look back from day one that I would be standing here. 200 game in the captain, I wouldn't think that, but like I said, this honor is special and I appreciate, you know, the fans, the club for giving me the opportunity.

— You are already the best in this regard among foreign players and in the top-4 in the entire history of the club. Are you ready to go even higher?

— For sure. I think every year I continue to get better in different areas. That's my mindset, just to get better every day. Whether that's scoring, passing, just doing whatever it takes to win. I think my next step is trying to bring that trophy back to St. Petersburg. I think that's the biggest thing for me.

— What changes did you notice in this game compared to the first semifinal match?

I thought we did a good job equalizing the physicality. We started from tip-off. We know that every time we come here is going to be a blood bath. It's gonna be very physical and challenging first. So I thought we came out mentally prepared for a contact game, all for 40 minutes. Like I said, we did a really good job of just following the game plan and doing what we needed to do. We missed a lot of shots, we made a lot of mistakes, but one thing we did, the whole game was played really hard and we fought and we stayed together.

UNICS is a very good basketball team, really good players. So we just got to stay focused and try to repeat what we just did tonight back in St. Petersburg.

— We managed to tie the series, and now it moves to Saint Petersburg. What would you like to say to our fans before the home games?

— It's 0-0 now, we don't equalize it. We would like that the fans come out, blue and white, support us, sold out arena on that third Game 3 home. We're going to need all you guys' support. I know it's been a long season, I know we had a lot of ups and downs, but we would really appreciate all your support Game 3 and supporting us in this fight for Game 3 to get a win.