By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Lokomotiv Kuban forced a Timma-less Zenit St. Petersburg to a EuroCup all-time low, winning 75 – 52 and making the 1 – o in the quarterfinal series between the Russian teams.
Ian Vougioukas paced the winners with 12 points and 7 rebounds while Mardy Collins added also 12 plus 5 rebounds. For one more game, Matt Janning excelled as a facilitator with 5 assists to go with his 5 boards and 7 points.
But it was all about making one stop after the other for Loko.
The game of the winning squad was nothing short of a defensive masterpiece, since they nullified the action of the most lucrative offensive team in the competition. Zenit averaged almost 89 p.p.g. before this match but fell incredibly short in Krasnodar.
With Janis Timma out of the picture (he didn’t participate in yesterday’s practice after an injury in the VTB match vs Enisey), cutting off Stefan Markovic from the rest of his teammates made half the job done for coach Obradovic’s players.
The Serbian guard finished with a season-low 3 assists and 1/8 from the field. Sergey Karasev and Trevor Mbakwe dropped 12 apiece for Zenit that shot 11/31 two-pointers and 6/32 from downtown.
Game 2 is taking place in St. Petersburg on Friday.