Tomorrow, the first home match of 2023 in the VTB United League will take place for the Minsk men's team at the Minsk Arena. The opponent will be the current champion of the tournament – Zenit. Read more about the St. Petersburg team in our preview.
Season 2022/23
After a short New Year's holiday, the participating teams of the VTB United League return to the game mode. The opponent managed to rest a little more – Zenit's last match took place on December 23 against Enisey. Meanwhile, MINSK's schedule turned out to be more intense: on December 25, our team played against Astana, and immediately after went to Mogilev, where the matches for the Belarusian Cup took place on December 28 and 29. In the final match against Grodno-93, Minsk residents won and for the 14th time became the owners of the main basketball trophy of the country.
Now Zenit is on the third line of the VTB United League standings with 13 wins in 17 matches. St. Petersburg lost twice to UNICS (one of the meetings was the first game of the season (79:82), and CSKA (80:85). An unexpected denouement awaited the reigning champions in the game with Avtodor, then, due to a malaise on the road, the team played without head coach Javier Pascual and lost with a score of 79:91. However, in the last game of last year, the blue-white–blues rehabilitated themselves, and won on the home court against Enisey with a score of 78:59.
The roster of the opponent has hardly changed since the previous meeting, only on December 26 the club announced the termination of the contract with American defender Joe Thomasson. Thomas Heurtel demonstrates the best statistics when scoring points in Zenit – 13.5. Also, the French defender averages 1.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. The leader in rebounds in the St. Petersburg team is Richard Solomon: the average statistics of the center per game is 7.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. The average age of the team is 29 years old, the average height is 200 cm.
MINSK forward Darol Hernandez Zinenko: ”I think the match with Zenit promises to be exciting. It's always nice to play against a strong opponent - the champion of the United League. We have to go out on the court focused and with enough energy to make everything go well. I believe that the team will do everything in its power, and we will have a decent game. Happy New Year to everyone!"
Zenit's pre-game roster (Saint Petersburg):
Guards:
3. Denis Zakharov (06.08.1993, 193 cm, Russia),
4. Andrey Toptunov (22.07.2002, 183 cm, Russia),
5. Caleb Homesley (27.11.1996, 198 cm, USA),
9. Dmitriy Kulagin (01.07.1992, 195 cm, Russia),
13. Thomas Heurtel (04/10/1989, 189 cm, France),
70. Vitalii Fridzon (14.10.1985, 195 cm, Russia).
Forwards:
7. Sergey Karasev (26.10.1993, 201 cm, Russia),
8. Igor Volkhin (30.10.1997, 199 cm, Russia),
10. Egor Ryzhov (28.08.2004, 194 cm, Russia),
20. Andrey Zubkov (29.06.1991, 205 cm, Russia),
21. Sergey Toropov (15.10.1989, 205 cm, Russia),
26. Thomas Wimbush (08.12.1993, 201 cm, USA),
33. Trey Thompkins (29.05.1990, 208 cm, USA),
64. Sergey Monia (15.04.1983, 202 cm, Russia).
Centers:
12. Artem Klimenko (10.01.1994, 214 cm, Russia),
23. Richard Solomon (06/18/1992, 208 cm, USA).
The head coach is Xavier Pascual (Spain).
The match starts at 7:30 PM. Tickets are available on the website and at points of sale KVITKI.by . Come to the Minsk Arena to support the team!
Photo: VTB United League