2020-21Regular SeasonRound 1
Anadolu Efes Istanbul 69
Zenit St Petersburg 73
October 01, 2020 CET: 19:30
Local time: 20:30 SINAN ERDEM SPORTS HALL.

Zenit stuns Efes in Istanbul

What a difference a season makes; the team with the worst record in the 2019-20 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season stunned the team with the best mark when Zenit St Petersburg bested Anadolu Efes Istanbul 69-73 on Thursday at Sinan Erdem Dome. Kevin Pangos scored a career-high 23 points – including 4 free throws in the final 23 seconds to seal the win – and dished 7 assists in his Zenit debut to lead the winners. K.C. Rivers added 14 points for Zenit, which trailed by 8 early in the fourth quarter before finishing strong. Vasilije Micic led Efes with 17 points and 9 assists, Krunoslav Simon netted 14 points and Rodrigue Beaubois 12 for the home team, which was missing star guard Shane Larkin due to injury.


Micic had the honor of scoring the season's first basket with a driving layup, but Rivers heated up to give the visitors a 2-7 lead. Micic teamed with Bryant Dunston to help Efes on a run to lead 10-9, but Arturas Gudaitis and Mateusz Ponitka came off the bench for all the points in a 0-6 finish to the quarter to make it 10-15 after 10 minutes. Beaubois took charge with all the points for Efes in the first 5 minutes of the second quarter to even things at 17-17. Zenit's guards seem to always have an answer for Efes and the teams went into the locker rooms for half time tied at 26-26.

Efes came out shooting with back-to-back threes by Simon and Beaubois resulting in a quick Zenit timeout. Simon made his third triple in as many minutes before he assisted Sertac Sanli on a slam for a 40-31 lead. Pangos took charge to rally Zenit within 44-42 before Simon added another shot from downtown. Gudaitis left his mark at both ends of the floor to keep Zenit close, but a jumper by Micic in the closing seconds of the third quarter made it 54-49. Rivers and Pangos fueled the Zenit attack before a monster slam by Alex Poythress tied it at 63-63. A Poythress alley-oop slam gave Zenit a 65-67 edge with 2 and a half minutes remaining. Pangos sank a pair of free throws with 23 seconds remaining to give Zenit a 67-71 lead and, after a jumper by Beaubois, Pangos iced the game with 2 more foul shots with 4.8 seconds on the clock.


Pivotal player

It looked like it might be a long night for Kevin Pangos when he came out of the game after 7 minutes with 3 turnovers and 0 points. However, Pangos was simply waiting for the second half to turn it on. He went for 19 points and 4 assists in the final 20 minutes, including 11 fourth-quarter points. He finished with a career-high 23 points, 7 assists and 5 turnovers in posting a game-high performance index rating of 25. What a debut in a Zenit uniform for the former All-EuroLeague guard, who missed all of the 2019-20 EuroLeague season with a foot injury.

The numbers tell the story

Zenit shot more efficiently than Efes from every distance – 59.4% to 54.5% on two-pointers, 30.4% to 25.9% on threes and 87.5% to 75.0% on free throws. The visitors also won the battle of the boards (35 to 31) and delivered 19 assists to Efes's 13.

What's next?

Zenit will host FC Barcelona on Thursday, October 8, in its home opener. Efes will seek its maiden victory when it hosts crosstown rival Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul the same night.

Kevin Pangos - Zenit St Petersburg - EB20
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; LATISEVS, OLEGS; NEDOVIC, MILAN
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Anadolu Efes Istanbul10162815
Zenit St Petersburg15112324
End of Quarter1234
Anadolu Efes Istanbul10265469
Zenit St Petersburg15264973
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 BEAUBOIS, RODRIGUE 25:27 12 3/3 2/5     3 3     2 2   2 3 13
2 SINGLETON, CHRIS 21:45 4 0/1 0/1 4/4   5 5     1 1   2 3 8
4 BALBAY, DOGUS 7:24 1   0/2 1/2                 4 1 -5
8 GECIM, TOLGA 7:49   0/2 0/1     2 2 1       1     -1
15 SANLI, SERTAC 7:41 4 2/4                 1 2 4   -3
18 MOERMAN, ADRIEN 22:44 8 2/2 1/3 1/2   5 5   1       1 2 12
19 TUNCER, BUGRAHAN 3:56   0/1                     1 1 -1
21 PLEISS, TIBOR 12:45 3 1/2 0/1 1/1   2 2   1 1     1 1 3
22 MICIC, VASILIJE 34:31 17 7/12 0/4 3/3 2   2 9   3   2 4 5 15
23 ANDERSON, JAMES 8:53 2     2/2   1 1   2       2 1 4
42 DUNSTON, BRYANT 16:10 4 2/4 0/1 0/2   1 1 1   1 1     1 2
44 SIMON, KRUNOSLAV 30:55 14 1/2 4/9     3 3 2           3 16
Team           5 2 7               7
Totals 200:00 69 18/33 7/27 12/16 7 24 31 13 4 8 5 5 21 21 70
        54.5% 25.9% 75%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Zenit St Petersburg
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 RIVERS, KC 28:59 14 4/5 2/4     5 5 1 1 2     4   12
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 28:07 23 5/5 3/9 4/4   1 1 7 1 5     2 6 25
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 17:25 7 2/2 1/1     1 1 1   1     1 1 8
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 11:39 5   1/3 2/3               1 2 2 1
10 THOMAS, WILL 19:53   0/2 0/1   2 4 6 2         2 2 5
12 BARON, BILLY 16:07 2 1/2 0/2     5 5 3       1 1 2 7
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 19:50 4 2/4 0/1     2 2 1 1 1     1 1 4
22 POYTHRESS, ALEX 19:38 7 3/5   1/1   3 3 1   1 2 1 3 1 7
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 18:00 4   0/2 4/4 2 2 4 2         1 2 9
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 20:22 7 2/7   3/4 1 4 5 1   1 3 2 4 4 7
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 73 19/32 7/23 14/16 6 29 35 19 3 11 5 5 21 21 88
        59.4% 30.4% 87.5%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

ATAMAN, ERGIN
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"All game we didn't play good basketball, but in the third quarter we found a way to move the ball and we found good shots. But in the last quarter we played terrible; we were not successful attacking the basket and on defense we did not have a chance to stop Kevin Pangos. We played terrible basketball tonight and the result of the game is normal."
PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"We are happy for this win in the opening EuroLeague game. It was a tough game. Both teams played good defense. For sure we didn't play at the level on offense that we would like to. I think it was agame that at some points looked more like a preseason game than an official game. I think this is logical in this situation. Both teams fought to win. I think in our side I think we had control of the game except for the beginning of the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter. We lost control of the game through defense, but after that we showed character and we found a way to change the game."

Players

PANGOS, KEVIN
Zenit St Petersburg
"I think we just dug deep. We didn't play great the first three quarters at all, things weren't clicking. But I think the guys really fought until the end. It wasn't pretty, but that's what you need in a season - to grind out these victories and I think we did that today.”
No results found.