2019-20Regular SeasonRound 18
January 10, 2020 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 ARENA MYTISHCHI

Zenit holds off Khimki on the road

Zenit St Petersburg used a huge third quarter to pull away towards and then hold onto another road win, edging its fellow Russian rival Khimki Moscow Region 81-83 on Friday. Zenit improves to 5-13, while Khimki lost its third consecutive game to drop to 8-10. Zenit took the lead at the start of the third quarter, and never relinquished it. The visitors extended the gap to double figures by allowing just 11 points in the third quarter, and Zenit led 48-64 early in the fourth. Khimki needed just 5 minutes to rally within a single possession behind Alexey Shved and Janis Timma, but Zenit held on. Will Thomas had 20 points and 8 rebounds, Austin Hollins netted 15 points while Mateusz Ponitka collected 12 points and 8 rebounds in victory. Shved finished with 30 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Timma had 17 points and Jonas Jerebko had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals in a losing effort.

Khimki got it going with Devin Booker inside and Shved connecting twice from downtown during an 8-0 run, but Zenit quickly answered. Close-range baskets from Ponitka who fueled a 2-10 run, capped by a low-post bucket by Thomas to made it 12-14. Thomas added a dunk late in the first, and a long jumper early in the second quarter to open a 15-20 lead. Anthony Gill hit a corner triple for the hosts, but Hollins and Thomas scored inside and Andrew Albicy nailed one from the outside to make it 20-29. Albicy hit another long-range dagger, but Timma nailed a triple followed by 5 points from Jerebko, including a three-pointer that tied it at 32-32. Another three from Timma helped Khimki take 37-36 into halftime, but Zenit went back in front early in the third with back-to-back three-pointers from Hollins sparking a 0-8 run to make it 41-46. Tim Abromaitis beat the shot clock with a triple to establish a 44-54 margin midway through the third quarter before the scoring slowed down. Andrey Zubkov's corner three-pointer made it 48-61 at the end of the third quarter and Abromaitis opened the fourth with a three-pointer to extend the lead to 16 points. But Timma answered with a jumper-plus-foul and followed it up with a triple, before Stefan Jovic sparked a 10-0 run during which Shved nailed a pair of three-pointers to cut it within 64-67. Ponitka snapped the hosts' run with a pair of baskets inside, as the rhythm and scoring picked up. Shved and Booker closed the gap, but Hollins strung together 5 points, including a triple, to make it 68-76 with 4 minutes to go. Ponitka dominated the offensive boards to help Zenit stay in front, then had a fast break dunk that helped the visitors take 72-78 into the final minute before closing the game out.

Key third quarter

Zenit turned a 37-36 half-time deficit into a 13-point lead in the third quarter. During those 10 minutes Zenit outscored Khimki 11-25. The visitors hit 5-for-8 from three-point range, had 13 rebounds, including 6 on offense, and dished 8 assists. Khimki was 1-for-6 from downtown, had just 5 rebounds and 2 assists in the third quarter.

Road warriors

Zenit is one of three teams at the bottom of the standings with a 5-13 record, but four of those wins have come on the road. The first two came in overtime at Olympiacos Piraeus and Zalgiris Kaunas, while the last two at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and now Khimki were by a combined margin of 5 points.

Crashing the boards

Zenit entered the game scoring a league-low average of 73.4 points, but it went over 80 points for the fifth time this season with all of those performances coming on the road. Zenit also entered the game ranked top of the charts with 12.0 offensive rebounds per game and pulled down 13 in this contest, 9 of which came in the second half.

Next up

Next week Round 19 tips off on Tuesday when Khimki hosts Valencia Basket. A day later, Zenit welcomes KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Austin Hollins - Zenit St Petersburg - EB19
Friday, January 10, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: PUKL,SASA; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; PEERANDI, RAIN
Attendance: 4349
By Quarter1234
Khimki Moscow Region15221133
Zenit St Petersburg16202522
End of Quarter1234
Khimki Moscow Region15374881
Zenit St Petersburg16366183
Khimki Moscow Region
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SHVED, ALEXEY 32:32 30 7/8 4/12 4/5   5 5 6 1 7     1 7 31
3 KRAMER, CHRIS 16:26 2 1/2     1 1 2 2 1 3     3    
5 BOOKER, DEVIN 25:01 8 4/6     1 2 3 2         2 1 10
6 TIMMA, JANIS 29:24 17 2/4 4/10 1/1   1 1 3 3 1     3 3 15
7 KARASEV, SERGEY 10:27   0/1 0/1     1 1       1   1   -1
8 ZAITCEV, VIACHESLAV DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 JEREBKO, JONAS 26:39 10 1/2 2/4 2/2   6 6 1 4     1 4 1 14
12 MONIA, SERGEY 4:10   0/1 0/1                   1   -3
13 GILL, ANTHONY 12:02 7 1/1 1/2 2/4   1 1           2 3 6
24 JOVIC, STEFAN 20:00 2 1/2 0/1   1 2 3 4 2 1 1   4 2 7
40 EVANS, JEREMY 16:18 5 0/1   5/6 2 2 4           1 3 9
45 BERTANS, DAIRIS 7:01   0/1 0/1             1   1 1   -5
Team           3   3     1         2
Totals 200:00 81 17/29 11/32 14/18 8 21 29 18 11 14 2 2 23 20 85
        58.6% 34.4% 77.8%
Head coach: KURTINAITIS, RIMAS
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
4 IVERSON, COLTON 26:02 9 3/5   3/5 1 3 4 1   2 1 1 1 5 12
6 ALBICY, ANDREW 18:06 6 0/1 2/4     2 2 2 1 2   1 3 1 3
7 PONKRASHOV, ANTON 6:26 1   0/2 1/2   1 1 2 2 1       1 3
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 23:11 15 3/3 3/8   1 2 3 3 3 1     3 1 16
10 THOMAS, WILL 24:06 20 7/8 1/1 3/3 2 6 8   1         2 30
12 RENFROE, ALEX DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13 KHVOSTOV, DMITRY 22:29 2 0/3 0/1 2/2 1 1 2 7   2     4 3 4
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 9:07 3 1/1   1/2 2 1 3 2 2       3 1 7
18 VORONOV, EVGENY 16:14 4 2/5 0/3 0/2   1 1 2   1 1   1 2  
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 15:09 3 0/4 1/3   1 1 2 1   2     1 3  
21 ABROMAITIS, TIM 13:56 8 1/2 2/2     1 1 1         2   7
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 25:14 12 6/7 0/2   4 4 8 2 2 3     2 4 20
Team           1 3 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 83 23/39 9/26 10/16 13 26 39 23 11 15 2 2 20 23 105
        59% 34.6% 62.5%
Head coach: PLAZA, JOAN

Head Coaches

KURTINAITIS, RIMAS
Khimki Moscow Region
"I'm not happy with the result we had tonight. I think we had some problems after couple of games. Okay, we had a really tough game against CSKA Moscow [in VTB League], but it was couple of days ago. We had to get back to serious games at home where we need to win. I don't know how, but we need these kind of wins. But today our energy was not so good, our concentration was not so good. The same situations we did well three days ago, today we made a lot of mistakes on defense, especially on pick and roll defense. I think that maybe some of us thought too good about ourselves."
PLAZA, JOAN
Zenit St Petersburg

“We came here, knowing exactly how tough it is to play against Khimki. They are in great shape, this is a team with great talent and they beat us twice in our home. We knew we have to give a pretty good effort, especially on defense, knowing they are the second best scoring offense in the EuroLeague. We tried to control our defensive rebounds. Even though the final difference is only 2 points, I think we deserved this win. It is an important win for us starting the second part of the regular season, and we will try to show a better picture now that almost all of us are healthy.“

"We have been working for several weeks to deserve victories like this. For the guys, and the job they are doing at practices, this is a great challenge to continue the same way. It is true sometimes we try to be solid at home, but it is also true we did not play that many games at home. We played many games away. But in this second part of the season we need to be more solid on our home court."

Players

GILL, ANTHONY
Khimki Moscow Region
"I think Zenit played really hard. In games like this, we have to be tougher. We have to fight harder. We cannot allow other teams to come to our house and beat us like that. I think we really have to take a step back, look at ourselves and see how we can get better and how we can play harder the next game. We have to have more pride and play better as a team. I think if we can do that we can be successful."
THOMAS, WILL
Zenit St Petersburg
"It was a hard-fought game for us. We came here knowing we can compete with them, and we showed it tonight by getting a win. It is our focus this year to be one of the best defensive rebounding teams, and to be one of the best offensive rebounding teams."
PONITKA, MATEUSZ
Zenit St Petersburg
"We came here ready to compete. We know that the second half of the regular season started, and we want to be better in the standings than we were in the first. Definitely our defense was the key to the game. We played really hard defense. We knew it would be a tough game. They are very physical, they run a lot, and they have second-best offense in the EuroLeague. So, basically, it was a big and great job for us on defense. And when you play good defense, offense also comes. We are happy, and we go back to St. Petersburg in a good mood. Coach puts a lot of pressure on us for offensive rebounds. We just try to follow his advice. We go and crash the boards. If we don't get the ball we try to go back really fast, but today we got a lot of them."
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