«Zenit» St. Petersburg, Russia vs. «Bisons» Loimaa, Finland

Zenit defeated Bisons at home, 106-73. The visitors put up a fight in the 1st quarter, but a 34-14 advantage for Zenit in the 2nd quarter put the game out of the reach. Trailing by 27 at halftime, Bisons failed to threaten in the second half.

Recap
Despite a weakened roster, Bisons continue to compete and hoped to make life difficult for St. Petersburg on Sunday. The 1st quarter was very close, featuring several lead changes. Helped by Kaspars Berzins off the bench, Zenit pulled away late, leading 29-22 at the end of the period.

During the 2nd quarter, Zenit's depth and talent wore down the visitors. Berzins stayed hot, draining back-to-back 3's late in the half. Ryan Toolson and Pavel Antipov were also effective, staking Zenit to a huge 63-36 advantage at the end of the first half.

The home team breezed to victoy in the second half, topping 100 points midway through the 4th quarter for a convincing 33-point win.

Star Player
Kaspars Berzins. Zenit's Latvian center only played 15 minutes, but managed to score 23 points (5-7 from downtown). He did most of his damage in the first half, helping Zenit pull away from Bisons after a tight 1st quarter.

Stat of the Game
30-15 - Zenit dished out twice as many assists as the visitors.

Quotes
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
- We have new players on the team and are building our connections once again. We achieved the goals we had for this game. A lot was decided in the first half of the game, which is why I gave everyone time to play, so they could get in rhythm. Overall, I'm happy with the game.

Bisons head coach Greg Gibson:
- Congratulations to Zenit on the win. They played well today. We aren't in the best spot. Our team is being rebuilt. We lost our six best players. We have 70 games in a season, including 16 more in the VTB United League and Finnish league. We'll try to play our best and try to help our three new players adapt to our style of play.

Snapshot