«Zenit» St. Petersburg, Russia vs. «Avtodor» Saratov, Russia

Zenit St. Petersburg defeated Avtodor Saratov at home, 90-74. The visitors controlled the first half, but Zenit upped the pressure in the second, pulling away for its fifth straight win.

Recap
Prior to the game, two Zenit players received individual awards. October MVP Ryan Toolson was honored as well as last season's Young Player of the Year Janis Timma. Toolson had to miss the game due to injury, but Timma was terrific in the first half, knocking down four 3-pointers.

Avtodor, however, dominated the first two quarters, opening the game on an 8-0 run and leading the entire 20 minutes. At halftime, the score was 44-40. Travis Peterson led the visitors with 12 points.

Vasily Karasev's men opened the second half with full-court pressure. The tactic worked: Avtodor began to make more mistakes, allowing Zenit to use its speed in the fast break. The home team won the 3rd quarter by nine points, 26-17, setting up a dramatic finish.

Leading by one, 72-71, early in the 4th quarter, Zenit pulled away for good. Artem Vikhrov and Zabian Dowdell combined for an 8-0 run, then back-to-back 3's from Janis Timma and Pavel Antipov made it a 14-point advantage. Zenit closes out a convincing win and improves to 5-0, top of the league.

Star of the Game
Janis Timma. The talented Latvian forward scored 14 points in the first half, keeping Zenit close. He continued to impress in the second, finishing with a game-high 23 points to go along with four steals.

Stat of the Game
60% - Zenit was deadly from beyond the arc (12-20).

Quotes
Avtodor head coach Brad Greenberg:
- I want to congratulate Zenit. They have a good, balanced team. They are very disciplined. We had an excellent first half, but couldn't keep it up after that. St. Petersburg hit 12 3-pointers, including a lot of open looks. Our defense was to blame some of the time, but give them credit. Their ball movement was excellent.

Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
- The biggest factor in our win was our defense in the 3rd and 4th quarters. We only let our opponent score 30 points, which is an excellent result. We said from the start that we needed to stop the fast break and 3-point shooting. If they shoot 50%, they usually win. Today they hit 26%, which means we did our job. We had a lot of trouble with offensive rebounds. We still need to work on that.

Stats

Snapshot