Toolson, Timma shoot Zenit past Zielona Gora

Zenit St. Petersburg remained undefeated in Group L of the Last 32 with a convincing 76-90 victory at Stelmet Zielona Gora. Ryan Toolson led the way with 20 points and Janis Timma added 19 points for Zenit, which improved to 3-0 in the group. Evgeny Valiev added 13 points and Zabian Dowdell chipped in 9 points and 7 assists in the victory. Dejan Borovnjak poured in 17 points in the loss for Zielona Gora, which dropped to 1-2 in the group. Przemyslaw Zamojski scored 14 points and Dee Bost added 10 points and 6 assists in the defeat.

Borovnjak opened the game for the hosts with 2 free throws with Andrey Koshcheev evening it for Zenit and Artem Komissarov giving the guests its first lead. Zamojski’s three-ball put Zielona Gora back in front 7-6 but Koshcheev added 2 more baskets in a 0-12 Zenit run to move ahead 7-18. Mateusz Ponitka stopped the drought but the hosts could not really put into the lead, which was 13-22 after 10 minutes. Toolson extended it to 13-25 to start the second quarter. Zielona Gora did get back-to-back scores but Dowdell’s three-ball started a 0-7 spurt for a 17-32 advantage. Artem Vikhrov pushed it out to 20-38 and Koshcheev’s three-point play had Zenit leading 24-43 at the break.

The Russian side scored the first 3 points of the second half as the lead grew to 22 points. And 3 Toolson free throws extended the margin to 27-51. Zielona Gora was able to score on 3 straight possessions but it could not get defensive stops and Toolson’s trey made it 33-56. The Polish team tried to chip away at the deficit with Adam Hrycaniuk’s free throw trimming it to 40-58. Timma and Pavel Antipov however nailed back-to-back three-pointers and the lead was 42-64. It was still 22 points after 30 minutes 50-72. Zielona Gora started the fourth with a Szymon Szewczyk three-pointer but Timma was on target again from long range and Anton Pushkov made it 53-77. Timma and Antipov both hit another three-pointer to keep Zenit up 60-83 with less than 5 minutes to play. Zamojski trimmed the margin to 66-84 inside the 3 minute mark as the hosts tried to cut into the deficit for a better final result. Borovnjak scored 5 points in the final minute to make it a 14-point loss.