Zenit U19 wins group in the preliminary round of the Russian junior Championship

The youngest team of the blue-whites opened the Children’s Youth Basketball League season with four consecutive victories. The preliminary round matches of the Russian U19 Championship took place from November 7 to 11 in St. Petersburg at the Kupchinsky Olymp sports school.

In their first game of the 2024/25 campaign, Dmitry Nikolaev's squad began their title defense with a match against Moscow Vityazi. The game ended with a confident victory for the St. Petersburg team, finishing 107:56. The standout player for Zenit U19 in that match was Vladimir Ershov, who scored 16 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and added steal, assist, and block. Additionally, two players achieved double-doubles — Daniil Kharlamov (12 points + 15 rebounds) and Matvey Kozhaev (15 points + 10 rebounds).

The next day, the St. Petersburg team concluded their match with an even larger margin, defeating YUKIOR-YUGRABASKET 125:50. Nikita Kiselyov delivered the most impressive performance for the blue-whites with 17 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals.

On November 10, the youth team faced off against Zenit 2009, another team within the Zenit system, coached by Vladislav Shumkov. Zenit U19 secured a 100:55 victory. The standout players for the 2009 team were Kirill Razumniy (10 points + 2 rebounds + 2 steals + 1 assist) and Artem Grazhdanov (10 points + 2 steals + 1 assist + 1 rebound). Meanwhile, the more experienced team saw a stellar performance from Daniil Razumniy, who scored 19 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 assist. Kharlamov once again achieved a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Zenit 2009 performed admirably in these competitions, finishing in 3rd place in the standings. Vladislav Shumkov’s squad defeated YUKIOR-YUGRABASKET (67:66) and Novosibirsk (54:52), narrowly missing a victory against the team from Moscow (75:76).

On the final day of the preliminary round, Zenit U19 secured a win against Novosibirsk with a score of 109:44, solidifying their spot at the top of group "E". The most outstanding player in this match was Artem Nikitin, who achieved a triple-double. The blue-whites guard scored 15 points, made 11 steals and delivered 10 assists. After the tournament, he shared his thoughts on the matches:

Everything that we practiced in training, we managed to show on this tour. But there were, of course, mistakes, which we will work on for the next stage. I can rate my performance as "good". There were moments when I lost the ball and almost couldn't cope in defense, but we don't grow without mistakes.