Zenit St Petersburg vs. Turk Telekom Ankara - Game

2018-19Regular SeasonRound 1

October 03, 2018 CET: 19:00

Local time: 20:00 YUBILEYNY SPORTS PALACE

Jennings leads Zenit to big home win

Zenit St. Petersburg won its 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season opener by downing Turk Telekom Ankara 91-80 at Sibur Arena on Wednesday. In his first-ever EuroCup game, Brandon Jennings paced the winners with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Sergey Karasev added 17 points, while Evgeny Voronov and Jalen Reynolds each had 14 for Zenit. Sylven Landesberg led Turk Telekom with 23 points and Vladimir Stimac added 20 for the guests.

Stimac had 6 quick points to help Turk Telekom tie it at 8-8. Jennings and Marko Simonovic stepped up for Zenit and a three-pointer by Sean Armand gave his team a 19-10, after an 11-2 run. Simonovic and Karasev boosted the hosts' lead to 28-15 late in the first quarter, but T.J. Campbell and Stimac fueled a 0-9 run that brought Turk Telekom back to life at 28-24. The visitors got as close as 34-32 before Vladislav Trushkin and an unstoppable Jennings pushed Zenit to extend its margin to 51-37 at halftime. Six answered points by Karasev broke the game open at 57-37 soon after the break. Nothing changed from that moment, as Jennings beat the third-quarter buzzer to give Zenit a 73-52 margin after 30 minutes and even though Landesberg got Turk Telekom within single digits in the next-to-last minute, the hosts cruised to a well-deserved win.

Pivotal performer

Jennings had a near-perfect first half, leading his team to get a comfortable lead. He reached halftime with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, on pace for what would have been only the eighth triple-double in EuroCup history. By halftime, Jennings already had a PIR of 24.

Did you notice?

With this win, Zenit is 7-1 in its EuroCup home opener in eight appearances in the competition. The only time it lost its first game at home was in the 2014-15 season, 86-90, against Besiktas Integral Forex Istanbul.

Stellar stat

Zenit outrebounded Turk Telekom 38-28, including 11 offensive boards. It also had a very good assist-to-turnover ratio. Zenit dished 20 assists and and committed just 9 turnovers.

Game-changing moment

A strong start by Turk Telekom was expected after the break, when it was down by 14. Instead, Zenit improved its defense and found its regular go-to guy in Karasev. He picked up a bullet pass from Jennings and turned it into a three-point play, which he followed with a triple to make it a 20-point game.

Next game

Zenit visits Partizan NIS Belgrade in the Serbian capital on Tuesday, October 9 at 20:00 CET. Turk Telekom plays its home opener a day later, on Wednesday, October 10 at 19:00 CET against three-time EuroCup champion Valencia Basket.

Brandon Jennings - Zenit St Petersburg (photo Zenit) - EC18

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Eurocupbasketball.com

Referees: BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; SUKYS, ARTURAS; NIKOLIC, UROS

Attendance: 3824

By Quarter	1	2	3	4
Zenit St Petersburg	28	23	22	18
Turk Telekom Ankara	18	19	15	28

End of Quarter	1	2	3	4
Zenit St Petersburg	28	51	73	91
Turk Telekom Ankara	18	37	52	80

Zenit St Petersburg

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
1	ARMAND, SEAN	2:24	4		1/1	1/2									1	1	3
2	REYNOLDS, JALEN	19:49	14	6/10		2/2	2	3	5	1	3	1	1	1	3	1	16
3	JENNINGS, BRANDON	31:44	20	4/10	3/4	3/5	1	8	9	8		1		1	3	7	30
7	KARASEV, SERGEY	31:52	17	5/7	1/4	4/5	1	2	3	3		3			4	4	14
10	DESIATNIKOV, ANDREI	8:36					3	2	5	1			3		2		7
16	TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV	17:28	7	2/5	1/2		2	2	4	2	1				1		9
18	VORONOV, EVGENY	27:11	14	4/7	2/3			2	2			2		2	5	1	4
19	SIMONOVIC, MARKO	18:16	4	1/2	0/2	2/3	1	5	6	1			1		1	3	10
20	PANIN, VADIM	8:41			0/1										2		-3
21	UTHOFF , JARROD	2:01						2	2			1			1
23	SCRUBB, PHILIP	22:38	5	2/4	0/3	1/2		1	1	4	1	1				3	7
31	VALIEV, EVGENY	9:20	6	3/4			1		1						4		2
	Team							1	1								1
	Totals	200:00	91	27/49	8/20	13/19	11	28	39	20	5	9	5	4	27	20	100
				55.1%	40%	68.4%

Head coach: KARASEV, VASILY

Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating

Turk Telekom Ankara

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
1	LANDESBERG, SYLVEN	34:48	23	6/10	2/5	5/9	1	2	3	5		2		1	3	10	24
6	KAYA, POLAT	10:00			0/1		1		1		2				2
7	AKIN, FIKRET CAN	7:47	8		2/2	2/2				1					2	2	9
9	SONSIRMA, YUNUS	8:29		0/4						3					1	2
10	ARSLAN, ENDER	20:06	2	0/1	0/2	2/2		1	1	2					1	2	3
14	PEKER, KAYA	4:40	2	1/2		0/1						2		1	3	1	-5
15	CETIN, SERHAT	14:46	2	1/1	0/2					1					1
17	TUREN, METIN	20:25	9	3/4	1/3		2	3	5	3	2	2	1		3		12
21	YILDIRIM, NUSRET	0:14
22	GABRIEL, KENNY	32:36	9	0/1	3/4	0/2		6	6	1	1	3	2		2	3	13
44	CAMPBELL, TJ	24:04	5	1/3	1/5		1	4	5	3	1	2			2		4
91	STIMAC, VLADIMIR	22:05	20	7/13		6/7	4	4	8				1	3	1	6	24
	Team						2	4	6			1					5
	Totals	200:00	80	19/39	9/24	15/23	11	24	35	19	6	12	4	5	21	26	89
				48.7%	37.5%	65.2%

Head coach: GOREN, BURAK

Head Coaches

KARASEV, VASILY

Zenit St Petersburg

"Everybody understands that it is not just winning the game, but also the points difference. This was not a normal situation, because my team relaxed on defense and started to do some crazy stuff on offense, especially this offensive foul after a timeout [in the final minute]. To me, this is incredible. But okay, this is a new team and we must work on that. Our team is not built until the end and we need one more center and maybe some player at the '2' position."

GOREN, BURAK

Turk Telekom Ankara

"It’s our first game in the EuroCup, so we were so excited before the game. We know that Zenit is vety strong team, we saw six or seven of their games. They are very good on fast breaks and have very strong players. We had a lot of problems in the first half, the second was better for us, but it wasn’t enough. As I said, it was our debut; let’s see what we can do in the next games."

Players

KARASEV, SERGEY

Zenit St Petersburg

"I think we played pretty good for three and a half quarters, but it is impossible to play like we did in the last five minutes, because we were up by 20-22, and finished the game winning by 11. Here, especially at home, the points difference is very important. We cannot have ups and downs like this. If we are up 20, in the next five minutes we have to be up by 25. We have to watch video after and see why we played like this in the last five minutes. This win is very important because if you win all your home games and take a couple of wins on the road, you go to the next round for sure. Thanks to our fans who came and supported us. The first game is very important because you might be a little bit nervous. We played good basketball other than in the last five minutes."