Zenit Saint Peterburg (6-2) couldn't overcome their many absences (Shabazz Napier, Jordan Loyd, Jordan Mickey) and suffered their second defeat in the VTB season, 74-83 (21-30, 12-14, 23-23, 18-16) to league leaders Avtodor (8-1).
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Zenit Saint Petersburg
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Maccabi Tel AvivThe team coached by Emil Rajkovic is tied for first place with UNICS Kazan, having simultaneously made it to the FIBA Europe Cup 2nd round. Given the fact that their game against the London Lions was canceled due to the pandemic, the Saratov team was systematically preparing for the VTB contest.
On the other hand, Xavi Pascual's Zenit were coming off a double week in the Euroleague, with a couple of games in France against ASVEL and Monaco.
Avtodor took the lead early on in the game (5-13) and never gave it up. Grant Jerrett scored 20 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the winners, while Zenit had four players in double digits (Billy Baron 15, Mindaugas Kuzminskas 14, Sergey Karasev 12, Igor Volkhin 10), but couldn't overcome their bad shooting night.
The hosts went 8/33 (24%) from deep, while forcing Saratov to only 7 turnovers.
Zenit Saint Petersburg: Billy Baron 15 (5/12 FG, 3/10 3PT-SHOTS, 2/3 FT, 3 REB, 4 AST, 3 TO), Mindaugas Kuzminskas 14 (5/11 FG, 4 REB), Sergey Karasev 12 (4 REB), Igor Volkhin 10, Arturas Gudaitis 8 (4 REB), Conner Frankamp 3 (1/9 FG, 3 REB, 4 AST).
Avtodor: Grant Jerrett 20 (6/15 FG, 6/6 FT, 9 REB), Anton Kvitkovskikh 12 (5 REB), Pavel Sergeev 12, Zeljko Sakic 10 (9 REB, 2 AST).
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