Zenit wins at home and denies CSKA leadership position in VTB League

After UNICS Kazan beat Nizhny, CSKA Moscow moved back to 2nd place in the VTB standings, but in case of a win over Zenit, they would regain the pole position. However, Zenit St. Petersburg had other plans as they started with two consecutive 3-point shots by Jordan Loyd, and continued with the same double by Billy Baron. The starting hosts’ run clearly stunned CSKA – 16:8. And yet the Army team managed to stabilize the game quickly. CSKA began to actively play inside, activating Tornike Shengelia and Nikola Milutinov, which led to an 11-0 run. At the end of the quarter, the Moscow team had already seized the lead, but Jordan Loyd did not allow the guests to end the quarter as leaders — 21:21.

By the end of the first half, Zenit led by 7 points and, at the end of the third quarter, held on to a comfortable lead (65-53). In the fourth quarter, Zenit controlled the game both offensively and defensively and beat CSKA with 81-68 and is now in shared third place of the VTB standings together with CSKA.