Szolnoki Olaj takes the debutantes duel against Zenit

Szolnoki Olaj scored its first-ever Eurocup victory in its debut in the competition by edging Zenit St. Petersburg 96-94 in Group D to share first place with Khimki Moscow Region and Besiktas Integral Forex Istanbul. Lazeric Jones completed an excellent performance with 23 points and 7 assists; his three-pointer gave the hosts the lead for good at 94-92. The home team scored 33 points in the final ten minutes to celebrate their first appearance in the competition. David Vojvoda paced the winners with 25 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting as the hosts made 14 of their 31 threes. Krisztian Wittman added 12 points and Strahinja Milosevic 10 for the winners. Walter Hodge’s 25 points weren’t enough for the visitors, who also got 14 from Cameron Jones, 13 points and 7 boards from Dejan Borovniak, 13 points from Dmitry Kulagin and 12 points and 9 rebounds from Kyle Landry.

Vojvoda scored free throws for a 6-0 start for the newcomers. Artem Vikhorov from downtown gave the visitors their first lead, 15-17. The teams exchanged leads with Jones converting an offensive board to finish atop 22-21 after 10 minutes. In a back-and-forth second quarter, Jones completed a three-point play for 42-34 Szolnok advantage with three minutes left to halftime. A triple from Artem Komolov and 4 points fromr Hodge, kept Zenit close, 47-44, at the half.

Early in the third quarter Hodge made it 52-54 for the guests before Borovnjak extended the margin to 54-60 at the midway point of the quarter. Jones scored to give Szolnok a 63-62 lead before Kulagin from long distance made it 63-67 at the end of the third quarter. Landry also scored a triple to push Zenit to 63-70, and after Jones tied it at 72-72, the teams exchanged leads till the last minute when, after a basket from Jones, Akos Keller and Vojvoda sealed the home team’s victory from the foul line. Kulagin missed a late three pointer to win it for the visiting team.