By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Stefan Markovic’s fourth double-double in the EuroCup season combined with a strong defensive effort in the third quarter led Zenit St. Petersburg to a 90 – 66 victory over Nizhny Novgorod.
This result eliminates Nizhny and preserves Zenit’s hopes for finishing at the first place of Group G. Neither DeAndre Kane’s near triple-double performance (16 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists) nor Tomislav Zubcic’s 15 points plus 5 rebounds were enough for the guests that fell short after a balanced 49 – 47 first half.
It was in the third period that Zenit maximized its defensive efforts, forcing its opponents to remain scoreless in the first 4 minutes and have only three points one minute before the end of the quarter. In the meantime, their offense guided by Stefan Markovic (10 points, 13 assists, 5 rebounds), Janis Timma (16 points, 5 rebounds 4 assists), Sergey Karasev (15 points) and Evgeny Valiev (17 points, 4 rebounds) remained strong enough to bring them up by 19, 70 – 51.
Nizhy lacked the strength to overcome such deficit in the remainder of the game with Zenit keep scoring at will.
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