7Days EuroCup: Zenit Hands Valencia First Loss

Round 4 of the 7Days EuroCup 2018-19 regular season is now in the books. One of the most important games of the round took place in Group C on October 24th. Zenit Saint Petersburg handed Valencia Basket its first loss of the season with a convincing 104-93 win at home. Both clubs now sport identical 3-1 records.  At this point, only one team has a pristine record and that’s none other than Lokomotiv Kuban (4-0), showing that the 7Days EuroCup teams are well-matched and that competition is fierce and intense.

What was impressive was how Sergey Karasev and Jalen Reynolds came through for Zenit at a pivotal juncture in the contest. The two players rallied Zenit to keep Valencia at bay when the orange shirts made a play to come back late in the game. Karasev dropped a game-high 26 points on some crazy shooting from downtown (6-of-8). Another player who had a noteworthy performance was former NBA guard, Brandon Jennings who deftly ran the offense for the team with 11 points and 12 assists. He was a great signing for Zenit and this game is an example of how he’s providing a return on their investment.

Matt Thomas paced Valencia with 22 points of his own.

Zenit is on the rise in the 7Days EuroCup and the team has been building up momentum since finding their groove this early in the season. Valencia goes back to lick their wounds and get back to the drawing board and see where they can improve defensively in order to avoid players like Karasev to just run away uncontested as he did.

Here are the rest of the results from October 24th to close out Round 4 of the 7Days EuroCup

Group A

Andorra 103-95 Ratiopharm Ulm

Germani Brescia 69-61 Crvena Zvezda

Galatasaray 85-86 Monaco

Group B

Cedevita Zagreb 81-85 Lokomotiv Kuban

Group C

Zenit 104-93 Valencia

Group D

Lietuvos Rytas 86-79 Fiat Torino

Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt 98-75 Mornar Bar