Zenit beat Kupol Rodniki in first pre-season match-up
Frazier, Kuric, Zhbanov, Moerman and Hunter joined the starting lineup. The first points for Zenit from the free throw line were scored by Kyle Kuric, who returned to St. Petersburg this summer. The guests played well on the rebound, but despite this, our team eventually managed to oust the rivals from the paint and escape into the gap even after the first ten minutes. 20 seconds before the end of the opening quarter, Artem Klimenko scored from above and set the final score by the first break — 28:17.
In the second quarter game, almost nothing changed: Izhevsk again took a lot of rebounds after its own turnovers, but could not make much use of it, and the gap in favor of Zenit only grew. By the big break, the performance was distributed more or less evenly: Kuric had 10 points, Karasev scored 8, Hunter, Frazier and Moerman scored 7 points each. The blue-whites had +19 to the half of the meeting.
After the break, our team began to play even more carefully on the rebound, which further limited the attack of the Izhevsk team. Trent Frazier found free partners time after time, and the opponents' attack got completely bogged down in the defensive formations of Xavi Pascual. As a result, after the break they scored only 22 points, while Zenit's attack has just started to work. The final score is 98:54 in favor of the blue-whites.
This success is in the pre-season, so from a tournament point of view it doesn't mean anything, but it's still nice to start the season with a big victory. The match was also attended by the pupils of the club system Konstantin Shevchuk and Pavel Zemskiy, who train together with the main squad.
Statistical Leaders:
Kyle Kuric — 18 points
Sergey Karasev — 17 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists
Vince Hunter — 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals
On August 28, Zenit will travel to Antalya and stay in Turkey until September 11.
