«Зенит» возвращается из Москвы с победой
The Blue-White-Sky Blues secured a victory in an away game against MBA-MAI, which took place today in Moscow. The Round 33 match of the VTB United League regular season ended with a score of 65:83 in favor of Zenit. This victory is the tenth in a row for the team from the Northern capital.
The game against MBA-MAI was the debut for Zenit's new player, Johnny Juzang, who started the game in the starting five. The American guard was joined on the court from the first seconds by Andre Roberson, Trent Frazier, Georgy Zhbanov, and Luka Šamanić.
At the beginning of the match, the home team managed to seize a comfortable lead thanks to a series of long-range shots: Barashkov (three times), Trushkin (twice), and Voronov were accurate from beyond the arc. The Blue-White-Sky Blues were experiencing some difficulties in offense at the time, but Šamanić caught fire, scoring from mid-range, long-range, and free throws — 8 points from the center in the first six minutes. Meanwhile, the scoreboard read 21:12, a situation that couldn't satisfy the coaching staff of the St. Petersburg team. At the end of the quarter, Zenit managed a good run, which allowed our team to significantly reduce the deficit: Vorontsevich scored second-chance points and shot from beyond the arc, Frazier also made a long-range shot, and Shcherbenev scored from mid-range. By the way, thanks to his three-pointer, Andrey surpassed the 3000-point mark in the VTB United League, becoming only the fourth player in the tournament's history to reach this milestone. After the first ten minutes, MBA-MAI led — 28:24.
Already in the next game segment, Dejan Radonjić's charges managed to continue their run and seize the initiative. Bako, Zhbanov, Vorontsevich (two more three-pointers from the forward), Roberson drove the team forward, and soon, with a "+6" lead for Zenit, the home team called a timeout, which allowed them to stabilize the situation on the court. By the halftime break, the opponents were in a tight battle with a fairly close score — 38:41 in favor of St. Petersburg.
Upon returning from the locker room, Zenit immediately removed all doubts about the winner in today's match: Andre Roberson scored points in almost every attack, Vorontsevich and Shcherbenev again showed their ability to shoot from beyond the arc, and Zhbanov was good on the follow-up. By the end of the third quarter, the blue-white-sky blues were leading 50:66, and they finished the game with approximately the same margin — 65:83.
The highest-scoring players for the blue-white-sky blues were Andre Roberson (16 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 block shot), Andrey Vorontsevich (15 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal), and Georgy Zhbanov (14 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist).
On March 22, "Zenit" will host "Lokomotiv-Kuban" at their home court. The game will start at 1:00 PM St. Petersburg time. Last tickets for the match are on sale on the club's official website.