RUS – Cup glory for Spartak St Petersburg

KRASNOYARSK (Russian Cup) - Spartak St-Petersburg won the Russian Cup on Tuesday with an 80-53 blowout of Nizhniy Novgorod in Krasnoyarsk.

Led by former Israel national team coach Zvi Sherf, Spartak followed up their 92-72 triumph over Lokomotiv Kuban with another convincing win to make sure they’ll have at least one trophy to brag about from the 2010-11 campaign.

Spartak are also hoping to win the Russian league, and the EuroChallenge.

Petar Popovic had 14 points and fellow big man Pero Antic 13 in the title game.

Spartak only led 16-14 at the end of the first quarter but took control in the next frame, outscoring BC NN 23-14 for a 39-28 lead.

With eight minutes remaining, the contest was far from decided because a three-point play by Serbia international Ivan Paunic for BC NN reduced the arrears to 42-36.

Spartak answered with a 7-0 run courtesy of baskets from Vladimir Dyachok and Patrick Beverley, and a three-ball by Russia international Anton Ponkrashov.

That gave Sherf’s team a 49-36 advantage.

They eventually went on an 11-2 run over the last 1:51 of the third quarter for a 62-40 stranglehold on the contest.

One of the keys for the Spartak triumph was the defense against Paunic, who had scored 25 points in his team’s semi-final triumph over hosts Enisey but was held to just three points.

Nikola Dragovic and Henry Domercant each had 10 points for Spartak.

FIBA