2020-21Regular SeasonRound 25
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 75
Zenit St Petersburg 76
February 19, 2021 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 ALEKSANDAR NIKOLIC HALL

Zenit holds off depleted Zvezda in a thriller

Kevin Pangos netted a career-high 25 points, including a game-winning three-pointer with 27 seconds to go, to give Zenit St Petersburg a hard-fought 75-76 win over Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on Friday night in the Serbian capital. In a battle that went down to the wire, Zenit snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 14-9, while Zvezda dropped to 7-17 on the season. Zenit led by as many as 15 points in the first half, and held a double-digit lead late in the third quarter, but Zvezda rallied behind Ognjen Dobric and Dejan Davidovac. The teams traded leads the rest of the way, before Pangos hit a second-chance triple after Mateusz Ponitka's offensive rebound, lifting Zenit to an important win. Pangos finished with 25 points on 5-for-6 three-point shooting and 7 assists, and was the only Zenit double-digit scorer. Zvezda's Jordan Loyd scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half, and Dobric netted all of his 13 points in the second half in a losing effort.

Loyd and Branko Lazic hit early three-pointers for Zvezda, but Austin Hollins had a pair of dunks to even things out. Arturas Gudaitis scored from close range, and K.C. Rivers knocked down a corner triple to put Zenit in front. A fastbreak layup from Pangos followed by another three from Rivers opened a 12-22 lead. Aleksa Radanov helped snap a 2-12 run and make it 16-22 after 10 minutes, then drove for another layup early in the second quarter. But back-to-back threes from Billy Baron and Rivers, two former Zvezda players, opened an 18-30 lead. Loyd scored Zvezda's next 6 points, but a three-pointer from Denis Zakharov and a jumper from Pangos helped Zenit to extend it to 24-39. Zvezda answered with a 7-0 run, sparked by a runner from Loyd and a triple from Marko Jagodic-Kuridza, but back-to-back threes from Pangos put Zenit ahead 36-48 at halftime.

The teams traded baskets to start the third quarter before Aleksa Uskokovic and Jagodic-Kuridza sparked Zvezda's offense. Loyd's dunk and a triple from Marko Simonovic cut it to 47-54 midway through the quarter, and a triple from Dobric made it 50-56. Zenit answered back and another triple from Pangos briefly restored a double-digit margin, but Dobric and Davidovac each hit from long range in the final minute of the third to make it 56-61 going into the fourth. A runner from Dobric and a fastbreak layup from Davidovac gave Zvezda 62-61 lead with 7:22 to go. After a timeout, Pangos took matters into his own hands with a driving layup and a three-pointer, then dished it for a triple from Andrey Zubkov to make it 64-69. A jumper-plus-foul from Aleksa Uskokovic tied things at 69-69 with 3 minutes remaining. Pangos knocked down a jumper, but Davidovac nailed a triple, then kicked it out for Dobric who nailed one himself with 53 seconds to go, giving Zvezda a 75-72 edge. But Zenit survived thanks to a big effort from Ponitka, who grabbed an offensive board after a free throw miss from Gudaitis, then found Pangos wide open on the perimeter for a game-winning basket. Zvezda had two more possessions to go in front, but Loyd's driving layup in the final seconds just missed as Zenit prevailed.

Pangos fuels Zenit

Kevin Pangos finished with 25 points, scoring 15 in the second half. The rest of his teammates combined to score just 13 points in the second half.

Free throw woes

Zenit made 15 of its first 16 free throws in the game, but in the last 3 minutes made just 2 of 6 free throw shotsThanks to Pangos’s heroics it did not cost the team victory.

Zvezda rides defense

Zvezda came up just short, but managed to rally behind second-half defense that allowed 28 points, and held Zenit to just 6 assists and 2 offensive rebounds after half-time.

Missing in action

Zvezda had six important contributors sidelined for various reasons: Cory Walden, Landry Nnoko, Langston Hall, Quino Colom, Duop Reath and Johnny O'Bryant were all out.

What's next

Both teams will be on double-duty next week. Zenit will be in action on Monday when it hosts AX Armani Exchange Milan in a rescheduled Round 5 game, then on Thursday it hosts Valencia Basket in Round 26. Zvezda will be traveling to face Zalgiris Kaunas in a rescheduled Round 24 game on Tuesday, then visits TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in Round 26 on Friday.

Kevin Pangos - Zenit St Petersburg - EB20
Friday, February 19, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: CHRISTODOULOU, CHRISTOS; VYKLICKY, ROBERT; RACYS, SAULIUS
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade16202019
Zenit St Petersburg22261315
End of Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade16365675
Zenit St Petersburg22486176
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 LOYD, JORDAN 26:41 21 6/10 1/5 6/6 1 3 4 3 1 3     4 6 20
4 USKOKOVIC, ALEKSA 18:10 5 1/3 0/2 3/3   2 2 6   1     4 2 6
5 SARANOVIC, NIKOLA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 VUJICIC, MILUTIN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 25:59 8 1/3 2/3   1 3 4 3 3 4 1   3 4 13
10 LAZIC, BRANKO 19:47 6 0/2 2/2     3 3   2       2 1 8
12 RADANOV, ALEKSA 12:04 6 2/3   2/2 1 1 2     2     2 3 6
13 DOBRIC, OGNJEN 22:40 13 2/3 3/7     1 1   1 1     1 1 9
19 SIMONOVIC, MARKO 31:59 3 0/1 1/4     1 1           2 1 -1
21 JAGODIC-KURIDZA, MARKO 19:53 7 1/3 1/2 2/2 1 2 3 2   1     2 1 7
32 KUZMIC, OGNJEN 22:47 6 2/6   2/4 5 4 9   1 1     3 3 9
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 75 15/34 10/25 15/17 9 22 31 14 8 13 1 0 23 22 79
        44.1% 40% 88.2%
Head coach: RADONJIC, DEJAN
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 22:44 9 0/2 3/4 0/2   3 3 1         1 2 9
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS 8:07 3   1/1         3 1 2     3   2
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 31:36 25 5/8 5/6         7 1 3   1 2 2 25
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 2:31 1     1/2   1 1 1           1 3
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 11:59 6 3/3 0/5     1 1   1 1     2    
10 THOMAS, WILL 22:43 6 1/2 0/1 4/4   3 3 1 1 2     1 2 8
12 BARON, BILLY 16:17 7 1/1 1/3 2/2   2 2 2         2 1 8
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 3:02   0/1     1 1 2   1 1         1
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 17:05 6 1/2 1/2 1/2   2 2 1 1       4 2 5
22 POYTHRESS, ALEX 9:09 2 0/2   2/2 1 2 3           1 1 3
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 27:10 2   0/3 2/2 2 3 5 3 2 4     3 5 7
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 27:37 9 2/3   5/6 1 5 6     1     3 7 16
Team           1 2 3     1         2
Totals 200:00 76 13/24 11/25 17/22 6 25 31 19 8 15 0 1 22 23 89
        54.2% 44% 77.3%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

RADONJIC, DEJAN
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"First of all, congratulations to Zenit for the win. At the same time, congratulations to my players for this game. The first half was defensively not that good with some mistakes, and they scored a lot, 48 points. The second half was better, we played quite good defensively and changed things on the court. In the last few minutes we had an open game. Unfortunately one rebound, or one layup, decided the game and they won. But in this situation, how can I be angry? I am very satisfied with this game. It was unrealistic to talk about any expectations considering all the roster problems we are currently facing. We had desire to give our best, play our best. I don't think there were too many people giving us much of a chance. If he had won that might have been the biggest upset this season. I hope our guys will recover quickly."
PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"We had more or less control of the game for 29 minutes. But the last two Zvezda offenses in the third quarter they scored two threes in a row. We missed one open shot, and that was crucial. In the beginning of the fourth quarter we did not play well. They started to feel the game, they got back into the game and it was point by point until the end. Finally, we had that offensive rebound and we scored a three-pointer, and in the last situation we had control of the game again, but then committed another turnover, a five-second violation inbounding the ball. Finally, the most important thing tonight is we go home with another win, but we have to improve our game. For sure, we understood that in the last three games we played three excellent teams, Barcelona, Milan and Fener away. But tonight we knew before the game it would be very difficult, and that's how it was. On Monday we play Milan, and we have to improve if we want to win."

Players

PANGOS, KEVIN
Zenit St Petersburg
"I think that team [Zvezda] has a lot of character, they came out and played really hard. Just credit to our team for battling. It wasn't always pretty but we got it by one point. Zvezda was fighting, that's all I can really say. They were really battling it. I didn't think we gave it our best – rebounding, defensively we weren't moving our feet. We’ve got to fix that going forward. The last play by Poni [Mateusz Ponitka], that rebound, our team fought right to the end, that's all you can ask for."
GUDAITIS, ARTURAS
Zenit St Petersburg
"It was a tough game, and we were lucky to win, for sure. It is a one-point win, but it is still a win. They fought a lot, the Zvezda mentality is like that. We knew that, we knew what to expect and we got the win."