«Zenit» St. Petersburg, Russia vs. «Vita» Tbilisi, Georgia

Zenit defeated Vita in St. Petersburg on Sunday evening, 101-50. The home team surged in front in the 1st quarter and never looked back. The visitors never got closer than 16 points in the second half and were outscored 55-20 over the final 15 minutes.

Recap
Zenit entered with a 6-0 record, heavy favorites at home against 0-8 Vita. Tbilisi also had just nine men available for Sunday's game.
Vasily Karasev's squad started the game on a 9-0 run and held Vita to a measly two points in the first eight minutes. October MVP Ryan Toolson made his first league appearance in November, teaming up with Janis Timma to terrorize the Vita defense. 17-year-old guard Grigory Motovilov even played a few minutes in the opening period, chipping in with an assist.

Zenit led by 24 points at halftime. The visitors cut the deficit to 16 midway through the period, but St. Petersburg responded with a 9-0 run and cruised to a 7th-straight win.

Star of the Game
Kyle Landry. The Canadian big man posted a double-double in 20 minutes on the court (15 pts and 10 rebs), including several clutch 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter that knocked Tbilisi out for good.

Stat of the Game
51 - Zenit matched the second biggest margin of victory in VTB United League history (Lokomotiv-Kuban set the record last season with a 63-point win over Kalev).

Quotes
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
- The score shows that it was an effective and efficient game. It's nice that after struggling in recent games, the team appears to have woken up and didn't underestimate its opponent. The team gave solid effort on defense, which led to offense. Once we led by 30-40 points, everything started to go in. It's nice that all the guys were in a rhythm. Youngsters Desyatnikov and Motovilov spent a lot of time on the court and acquitted themselves well.

Vita head coach Pavel Googe:
- Any coach is happy or disappointed depending on how his team played based on its ability. In that regard, my conscience is clear. Vita demonstrated what it's capable of right now. The roster and the preparation that we've put in was reflected on the scoreboard. I can't say we played poorly or that we could have been better, but failed to perform. We played the best we could today. My objective was to preserve the guys, avoid physical or psychological injuries and continue preparing for our home game vs. VEF. It's a long season. There are a lot of games to go.

Stats

Snapshot