Zenit St. Petersburg overcame Tsmoki-Minsk on the road, 71-58 (20-8, 22-17, 12-16, 17-17).
Top Performers
Tsmoki-Minsk: Dru Joyce (23 points), Djordje Gagic (11 points + 10 rebounds), Nemanja Milosevic (9 points + 8 rebounds), Laimonas Kisielius (4 points + 12 rebounds)
Zenit: Janis Timma (20 points), Sergey Karasev (18 points), Kyle Landry (10 points + 7 rebounds), Aaron White (5 points + 9 rebounds)
Turning Point I
This game was mostly decided in the 1st quarter. Zenit held the Dragons to eight points on 4-16 shooting to pick up a 20-8 advantage.
The lead grew to 17 by halftime, putting St. Petersburg in control.
Stat
43-35 – Despite losing by 13, Tsmoki-Minsk outrebounded Zenit by eight, with three different players recording eight or more rebounds (Kisielius, Milosevic, Gagic).
Turning Point II
The home team mounted a brief charge at the start of the 4th quarter. Trailing by 13, the Dragons scored seven unanswered to cut Zenit’s lead to 54-48.
St. Petersburg forward Anton Pushkov came up with a big offensive rebound on the next possession, allowing Janis Timma to end the scoring drought. A ‘3’ from Kyle Landry on the next trip down the court sparked a 9-0 run, pushing the lead back out to 15.
Quotes
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– The only positive to today’s game was getting a win. For me, this was our worst game of the new season, including the preseason. We started okay, but after the 2nd quarter everything fell apart. The players started shooting 3-pointers, made more mistakes, and Tsmoki, for its part, improved on defense and cut into the deficit. There aren’t any bad teams in the League and you’ll get punished for any lack of focus. Tsmoki showed us that today.
Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Igor Grishchuk:
– It’s really tough for us to play right now: The travel is insane. 32 hours on the road to Bulgaria, 30 hours to Israel. Of course, fatigue has set in. I think there will be a positive result, but we need to be patient.
Up Next
Tsmoki-Minsk: October 16 vs. Avtodor
Zenit: October 18 vs. Kalev
Snapshot
