The competition you're waiting for

Chance to regain leadership

The second stage of the VTB League regular season does not allow teams to relax. The competition in the top six is very intense, and it is incredibly difficult to predict the final standings. It seemed that the unexpected defeat of CSKA by Enisey and the subsequent victory of UNICS over Zenit allowed the Kazan team to gain a foothold at the top of the standings. But on Tuesday, Velimir Perasovic’s team lost in Krasnodar - and stayed even with the Muscovites.

Loko's victory allows CSKA to regain the lead, but, in turn, adds motivation to Zenit, because the Kuban team beat the team from St. Petersburg in the fight for third and fourth places.

No games without a battle

“First of all, I would like to express deepest condolences and words of support for everyone who suffered in the terrible terrorist attack last Friday,” said CSKA head coach Emil Rajkovic. “Everyone in CSKA is deeply touched by the tragedy, and we are trying to help as much as we can. Talking about the game, during the latest years our meetings with Zenit turned into a big rivalry, that provides amazing games and draws big interest from basketball fans. This season we’ve played three interesting games, and we are ready for just another one. Zenit is in full strength, in good shape and has huge motivation. We still miss Casper Ware, but we believe we are strong enough as a team to fight in every game, to improve our performance and position in the wake of the deciding stage of the season. Important game is ahead of us and we need all the possible support from devoted CSKA fans tomorrow.”

All three games this season turned out to be exciting. The first two even went down to the last moments. Both times the Muscovites earned a solid advantage and lost it at the end of regulation time. In St. Petersburg, the hosts were brought back into the fight by Thomas Heurtel; the visitors needed to be very disciplined in the last couple of minutes and get free throws from Amath M'Baye to finish “+4”. In Moscow, CSKA almost missed out on victory, letting a three from Trent Frasier, then committing a turnover and letting another three to Igor Volkhin - fortunately, the Zenit guard scored a moment after the final buzzer. In overtime, the Muscovites left no chance for their opponents. In both meetings, the highest scorer for the red-blues was Casper Ware (17 and 28 points).

Finally, in the second round, CSKA, without Ware, fought only in the first half, allowing Zenit to make a run in the third quarter, from which they could not recover. Once again, the most important role was played by Frasier (24 points) and Bojan Dubljevic (15 points), who hit two important threes at the end of third quarter.

Past matchups

Wins-losses: 33-14 (5-0 in EuroLeague, 18-0 against Triumph Lyubertsy)

Games of the 2023-24 VTB United League season:

08-Oct-2023. 1st stage. Zenit - CSKA: 76-80 (+4)
10-Dec-2023. 1st stage. CSKA - Zenit: 104-89 OT (+15)
01-Mar-2024. 2nd stage. Zenit - CSKA: 81-71 (-10)

Brief dossier

Zenit St.Petersburg, Russia

Founded: 2014
Colors: dark-blue, white, light-blue
Homecourt: SIBUR Arena (7,120)
CEO: Alexander Tserkovny
Head coach: Xavi Pascual
Website: bc-zenit.com