2020-21Regular SeasonRound 18
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 77
Zenit St Petersburg 89
January 07, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 OAKA

Zenit rolls to victory in Athens

Zenit St Petersburg continued its dominance on the road this season by beating Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 77-89 on Thursday at OAKA. Arturas Gudaitis scored a career-high 25 points as Zenit improved its record to 11-5, including 8-1 outside of Russia. Kevin Pangos added 18 points and 10 assists for his second double-double of the season, Will Thomas posted 10 points and 7 rebounds and Austin Hollins also scored 10 for the victors. Ioannis Papapetrou paced the Greens with 14 points and Dinos Mitoglou added 13 points and 7 rebounds. Panathinaikos, playing its first game under interim head coach Kostas Charalampidis, lost its third game in a row to fall to 5-12.

Gudaitis started strong for the visitors with a block on one end and a dunk on the other. Georgios Papagiannis played a key role in the Greens' attack, but Zenit looked to pull away as Pangos scored twice and a Gudaitis hook shot made it 7-13 midway through the opening quarter. A three-pointer by Thomas and a steal and slam from Hollins extended the margin, which reached double figures on Anton Pushkov's free throws, 9-20. Free throws by Nemanja Nedovic helped Panathinaikos settle down and end the quarter at 16-26. Billy Baron capped a 0-7 Zenit start to the second quarter with a triple that prompted a Panathinaikos timeout. Ben Bentil scored twice to revive the hosts and Nedovic followed with a triple. A Bentil slam made it 27-35 midway through the quarter. Pangos and Papapetrou traded threes before Shelvin Mack trimmed the deficit to 7. Gudaitis scored on consecutive possessions and added another slam in the final minute that lifted Zenit to a 35-47 halftime lead.

Thomas opened the second half with his second three of the night and Pangos soon added a three-point play. Papagiannis stepped up with a block and a jumper to keep Panathinaikos in the hunt, but a basket-plus-foul by Gudaitis and free throws by Thomas stretched the margin to 20. Another three-point play by the Zenit center gave him 1,000 career points, a career-high 21 for the game and a 41-62 lead. Free throws by Thomas and Hollins made it a 25-point game. Leonidas Kaselakis provided a spark for the Greens with 8 points to narrow the gap to 54-76 through three quarters. Panathinaikos held Zenit to just 2 points in the first 4 minutes of the fourth quarter while Eleftherios Bochoridis and Nedovic got the hosts within 63-78. A triple by Mitoglou made it 68-80. Gudaitis gave Zenit some breathing room with a three-point play, but a second Mitoglou three got Panathinaikos within 75-84 with 2 minutes remaining. However, the hosts could add only 2 more free throws after that and Zenit held on for the victory.

Pivotal player

Kevin Pangos ran the Zenit attack brilliantly to amass 18 points and 10 assists. The point guard made all 7 of his two-point shots, collected 3 rebounds and only had 2 turnovers for a performance index rating of 25.

Gudaitis's special night

On the same basket in the third quarter, Zenit center Arturas Gudaitis made personal history as he reached 1,000 career EuroLeague points and matched his career-high with 20 points. Gudaitis, who is in his seventh EuroLeague campaign with his third different club, finished the game with 25 points.

Telling numbers

The biggest difference between the teams was in their two-point shooting. Zenit made 23 of 33 twos (69.7%) while holding the home side to 20 of 42 (47.6%). Zenit was also excellent on its free throws, making 22 of 25 (88%).

What's next?

Both teams play next in Round 19 on Wednesday, January 13. Zenit heads to Germany to take on FC Bayern Munich, while Panathinaikos remains home for a date with LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

Arturas Gudaitis - Zenit St Petersburg - EB20
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; DIFALLAH, MEHDI; BALAK, AMIT
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens16191923
Zenit St Petersburg26212913
End of Quarter1234
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens16355477
Zenit St Petersburg26477689
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 MACK, SHELVIN 18:04 1 0/2   1/2 2 2 4 4   3     2 1 2
6 PAPAGIANNIS, GEORGIOS 22:56 9 4/6   1/2 1 2 3 3 1 1 2   2 3 15
7 BOCHORIDIS, ELEFTHERIOS 7:07 5 0/1 1/1 2/2   1 1 1 1 1     3 1 4
10 PAPAPETROU, IOANNIS 33:33 14 4/6 1/4 3/3   3 3 3 1 5     2 3 12
14 KASELAKIS, LEONIDAS 14:58 9 1/1 2/2 1/2   1 1 2 1       1 4 15
16 KALAITZAKIS, GEORGIOS 2:58   0/1                     3   -4
17 FOSTER, MARCUS FRANKLEE 5:47 2 1/3             1     1 1   -1
26 NEDOVIC, NEMANJA 21:42 8 1/5 1/3 3/4 1   1 1 1 1   2 4 4 1
30 WHITE, AARON 18:34 6 2/4   2/3 1 1 2 1 1       1 2 8
44 MITOGLOU, KONSTANTINOS 20:34 13 2/6 2/3 3/4 4 3 7 2 2 1 2 1 4 5 19
50 BENTIL, BEN 17:56 8 4/4 0/2     3 3           1 1 9
74 SANT-ROOS, HOWARD 15:51 2 1/3 0/1         4   1   1 2 1  
Team           3 1 4               4
Totals 200:00 77 20/42 7/16 16/22 12 17 29 21 9 13 4 5 26 25 84
        47.6% 43.8% 72.7%
Head coach: CHARALAMPIDIS, KOSTAS
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 19:06 4 2/3 0/3     3 3 2 3     1   2 9
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 26:56 18 7/7 1/4 1/1 1 2 3 10   2     4 3 25
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 3:25 3   1/1     1 1 1   1     2   2
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 28:53 10 2/3 1/7 3/4 1 1 2   2   2 1 3 3 7
10 THOMAS, WILL 29:03 10 0/1 2/2 4/4 2 5 7 2       1 2 3 18
12 BARON, BILLY 13:07 6   2/5     1 1 2 1 2       1 6
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 9:03 8 1/2   6/6 1 1 2     3 2   5 3 6
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV 0:23                              
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 15:36 1 0/1   1/2   2 2 2   2     3 2  
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 28:16 4 1/3 0/1 2/2   2 2 2 1 1     2 4 7
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 26:12 25 10/13   5/6 2 1 3   1 2 1 1 4 5 24
Team           4 1 5               5
Totals 200:00 89 23/33 7/23 22/25 11 20 31 21 8 13 5 4 25 26 109
        69.7% 30.4% 88%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

CHARALAMPIDIS, KOSTAS
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"I want to congratulate Zenit because they deserved to win. They played much better. They established their tempo in the game from the beginning. It was hard for us to follow because Zenit is a team that has a lot of quality. They are the best defensive team in the league and they proved that. We had a lot of difficulties to run the flow of our offense and also defensively, we didn’t read the game well and we let them score some baskets that we should have prevented. I hope the best for Zenit and we have to keep going."
PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"The final result is important, but also I like very much the way that we played, how we played defense, how we played offense. Unfortunately in the last quarter, especially in three-pointers, we didn’t score some open shots that could have finished the game before, but okay, this is what it is. Also, Panathinaikos played well in the last quarter and this is why we won only by 12, but we are very happy tonight."

Players

KASELAKIS, LEONIDAS
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"Our fans are waiting to see a reaction from us and unfortunately they did not see it. As long as we have mathematical hopes we must fight. Our image is unacceptable, despite the promises we made to each other. The EuroLeague does not forgive mistakes. We have to work hard."
PANGOS, KEVIN
Zenit St Petersburg
"We've got a great group of guys here and it makes my job easy. I try to get them the ball in their sweet spots and they do the rest. It's just a great group to play with and I'm enjoying it. [The secret to winning on the road] is our team chemistry. When you're on the road, you've got to stick together as a unit and I think this team does a great job of that. Every time we're on the road, no matter the ups and downs of the game, we continue to fight and that's really important."
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