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The army men returned from the failure
A few days after the unexpected defeat to Nizhny Novgorod, the current champion of the VTB United League, CSKA, beat Zenit with a score of 83:77. Following the meeting, the opponents swapped places in the tournament table. The Army team took second place, and the St. Petersburg team took third. Lokomotiv-Kuban, progressing without any misfires, continues to lead.
On Sunday, the central match of the third week of the regular championship of the VTB United League took place in Moscow. The capital's CSKA, which unexpectedly lost to Nizhny Novgorod on Wednesday, hosted Zenit from St. Petersburg. This meeting lived up to high expectations. The first minutes suggested the opposite, but there was enough intrigue in this.
The visiting team's coach, Javier Pascual, was forced to take his first timeout just four minutes into the game. The Petersburgers slept through it. At that point, they were losing 4-15.
The effect of Pascual's talks with his players was short-lived. Over the next three minutes, CSKA had serious difficulties organizing an attack. During this period, the team failed to score a single point. But two accurate shots into contact by Aleksa Avramovic, who joined the army team in the summer, and Melo Trimble, who was playing for the team for the second season, brought some consolation to the hosts. 22:14 - This was the score from the first break.
But by the end of the quarter, passions had run high, despite the big difference in the score after one period. Zenit forward Dwayne Bacon and CSKA player Anton Astapkovich got into a wrestling match and were called for unsportsmanlike fouls.
The game stabilized in the second quarter. For this, Zenit can thank its "big man" Alex Poythress, who scored 9 points in 6 minutes on the court. Not only did the game become more intense, but there were also more truly outstanding episodes.
Moscow center Tony Jequiri scored first, blocking two shots and scoring an assist in one minute. Teammate Avramovic showed moments of outstanding efficiency. He hit the opponent's goal post with a one-handed shot under close protection from about 30 feet away. That distance was worth four points for a shot at the recent Philippine championship. And the first half ended with a precise long-range shot shortly before the siren sounded. It was Casper Ware who confused Zenit and allowed CSKA to go into the big break with a five-point lead.
The third 10 minutes were also spent in a fierce struggle. Zenit continued to be in CSKA's possession, but towards the end of the period they again allowed their opponent to build up their reserves. With a 64-60 advantage in their opponent's favor, the visitors went on a quick break. Poythress was so eager to hit the opponent's goal that he violated the rules in the attack and missed the opportunity to reduce the gap. In the counterattack, CSKA center Livio Jean-Charles scored three points. He scored under the basket half a second before the end of the quarter and even forced the opponent to foul.
However, in the last seven minutes, Zenit gave the hosts quite a headache.
Thanks to the efforts of Duane Bacon and Georgy Zvanov (the former was the top scorer of the day with 19 points), they eliminated the eight-point deficit and soon took the lead for the first time in the game. However, the mistakes and defeats of the St. Petersburg legionnaires gave CSKA several "free" attacks and the outcome of the match was predetermined. The last 30 minutes of clean time were replaced by 10 minutes of dirty time, but there was no longer a smell of a fight. The champion's advantage was too great. And he brought it to victory - 83:77.
At the same time, CSKA with five wins in six matches took second place in the standings of the VTB United League Championship. Zenit, which also won five games, suffered its second defeat of the season and dropped to third place. Krasnodar's Lokomotiv-Kuban is leading the team, having played the first six matches without errors.