"A Day in history": Zenit's largest win in the EuroCup

October is certainly associated with EuroCup appearances for fans of the blue-whites. It was ten years ago this month that the team from St. Petersburg made its tournament debut in the year of the club's founding. On October 15, 2014, Zenit faced Hungarian team Szolnoki Olajbanyasz on the road and lost narrowly 94:96. Despite the defeat, this marked the beginning of the team’s journey in European competitions. Recently, we also recalled Ryan Toolson's scoring record from one of Zenit's October EuroCup games.

Today, in the new piece for the “A Day in history” project, we’ll look back at Zenit’s record victory with the largest point differential in the club’s EuroCup history.

On October 17, 2018, Zenit had an away game for the third round of the EuroCup group stage against Italian team Dolomiti Energia Trento. Both teams entered the match with two consecutive losses, and each was eager to break its losing streak.

The visitors took control from the start and held onto it until the final buzzer. The game began with an 8:0 run by Jalen Reynolds, Marko Simonoviс and Vladislav Trushkin. Zenit won each quarter with ease, ultimately claiming the largest victory in its EuroCup history with a score of 93:60.

The 33-point gap was a record margin for the blue-whites. The team’s top scorers that night were Canadian Phillip Scrubb and American Jalen Reynolds, each with 14 points. Additionally, two Zenit players achieved double-doubles: Israeli guard Gal Mekel, who tallied 11 points and 10 assists, and Reynolds, who added 13 rebounds to his 14 points.

In the 2018/19 season, St. Petersburg got into the Top 16 of the EuroCup, but found themselves in a rather difficult group, where there were also two future semi-finalists of the tournament — UNICS and Andorra. The blue-whites took third place in the second group stage and did not get into the quarterfinal.

That EuroCup season turned out to be Zenit’s last in the tournament. The following year, the team made its debut in the EuroLeague.