By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With a wonderful team effort, aggressiveness and hot with momentum from the game in Krasnodar, Lokomotiv Kuban overpowered Zenit St. Petersburg 88 – 77 on the road and advanced to the EuroCup semifinals.
Kevin Jones flirted with the double-double after 17 points and 9 rebounds, Andrey Zubkov added 14 and Matt Janning 13. Taylor Rochestie had 12 points and a team-high 6 assists.
For Zenit, that ended its Eurocup obligations in a disappointing manner, Stefan Markovic had a double-double of 21 points, 12 assists and Sergey Karasev also pitched in 21 points. However most of their action came when it was too late in the match….
Coach Obradovic’s players entered the match playing their usual “strangling” defense. Not only did they force their opponents to only 10 points in the first quarter but made the most out of their stops on the other end by dropping 25.
The margin went up to 19, 20 – 39 in the mid of the second period, with Zenit looking almost… helpless on the floor. Even though they found some rhythm in their game, especially after halftime (29-44) they never recovered after their bad start enough to actually become dangerous.