2020-21Regular SeasonRound 28
Zenit St Petersburg 71
Real Madrid 75
March 04, 2021 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 SIBUR ARENA

Real rallies to edge Zenit

Real Madrid bounced back from a stunning loss two days before to take down Zenit St Petersburg 71-75 on the road at Sibur Arena on Thursday. Real outscored the hosts 2-9 over the game's final 2 and a half minutes to claim the victory and leapfrog Zenit in the standings. Los Blancos improved to 17-11 and send Zenit down to 16-11. The victory also gave Real a season-sweep for Zenit. Walter Tavares shined for Real with 16 points and 9 rebounds despite being limited to 23 minutes by foul trouble. Gabriel Deck added 15 points for the visitors. Kevin Pangos led Zenit with 14 points and 7 assists, Billy Baron scored 12, Alex Poythress 11 and Mateusz Ponitka 10.

The points came quickly at the start with four Real players scoring – including 5 points from Deck – in the first 3 minutes as the visitors grabbed a 6-12 lead. Tavares scored twice in the paint to give his team a double-digit lead, 8-18, midway through the opening quarter. After a Zenit timeout, Pangos knocked down a three, but Real continued to roll with another basket by Tavares and a layup by Carlos Alocen. After Will Thomas sank free throws for the hosts, Tavares's hook shot gave him 10 points for the quarter and a Real a 13-24 advantage after 10 minutes. Despite an alley-oop slam from Tarik Black, Real extended its lead to 15-29 on a Trey Thompkins triple. Pangos responded with 5 quick points to prompt a Real timeout. Tavares came back after a rest and soon scored on the offensive glass to restore a double-digit lead. Pangos's third three of the game gave him 14 points and trimmed the deficit to 29-38 at the break.

Poythress attacked Tavares for a three-point play on the first possession of the second half. Austin Hollins hit a jumper, Poythress scored in the paint and Ponitka netted free throws to cap a 9-0 run that evened the score at 38-38. Jeffery Taylor and Trey Thompkins briefly put Real back on top. After Thomas tied it with a triple, Poythress's tip-in gave Zenit its first lead since the opening minutes, 43-41. The teams settled in and traded baskets with Thomas heating up for the hosts. A pair of threes by Baron – one of them a four-point play – extended the margin to 58-52, which was how the third quarter ended. Jaycee Carroll twice drew Real within 2, but Zenit responded each time. Fabien Causeur free throws made it 64-62 midway through the fourth quarter. Hollins revved up the home fans with a dunk on the offensive glass, however, a circus shot by Deck evened things at 66-66 with 3 minutes remaining. Baron answered with a three on the next possession, but Deck dunked and Nicolas Laprovittola drove through the Zenit defense for a go-ahead layup with 1:45 on the clock. Tavares took charge with a block on one end and a dunk-plus-foul at the other for a 69-72 advantage. After Baron missed from deep, Causeur made it a two-possession game with 2 free throws with 27.2 seconds to go and the visitors held on the rest of the way.

Pivotal player

Walter Tavares dominated without mercy in the first half as Real Madrid led by as many as 14. He was forced to miss most of the third quarter with foul trouble and did not return until there were 6 minutes to play. He contributed a key block and a slam in the final two minutes to help preserve the lead. After posting 14 points and 7 rebounds in the first half, Tavares finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 1 block.

Telling numbers

Both teams went inside often and Real had a big advantage in the paint. The visitors shot 26 for 44 (59.1%) on two-pointers, which helped cover for its 3-for-11 on threes (27.3%). In contrast, Zenit made just 17 of 36 two-pointers (47.2%).

Another milestone for Carroll

Real's 37-year-old guard Jaycee Carroll scored 6 points to climb another rung on the all-time scoring charts. He tied Jaka Lakovic for 17th place with 2,524 career points. His injured teammate, Rudy Fernandez, is 16th with 2,614.

What's next?

Real Madrid faces another stern test next week when it hosts archrival FC Barcelona in el Clasico in Round 29 on Thursday, March 11. Zenit visits Olympiacos Piraeus in Greece the following day.

Walter Tavares - Real Madrid - EB20
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: BELOSEVIC, ILIJA; PASTUSIAK, PIOTR; AMBROSOV, MYKOLA
Attendance: 3134
By Quarter1234
Zenit St Petersburg13162913
Real Madrid24141423
End of Quarter1234
Zenit St Petersburg13295871
Real Madrid24385275
Zenit St Petersburg
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS 3:59   0/1             1         1 1
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 30:17 14 1/6 4/6     1 1 7   1   1 3 4 14
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 4:33     0/2   1   1           1   -2
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 22:51 9 3/3 1/2 0/1 1 1 2 1 1       4 2 9
10 THOMAS, WILL 24:14 9 2/6 1/3 2/2 1 5 6 1   1     1 2 10
12 BARON, BILLY 22:25 12 0/1 3/8 3/3   1 1 3   1     3 5 11
13 KHVOSTOV, DMITRY 3:58                   1     3   -4
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV 1:48   0/1       2 2               1
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 15:57 2 1/2     1   1             1 3
22 POYTHRESS, ALEX 20:33 11 5/8 0/1 1/1 1 1 2         1 3 2 7
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 30:25 10 3/4 0/1 4/4   7 7 2 1 2     3 5 18
28 BLACK, TARIK 19:00 4 2/4     1 2 3     4   1 4   -4
Team           2 2 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 71 17/36 9/23 10/11 8 22 30 14 3 11 0 3 25 22 67
        47.2% 39.1% 90.9%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI
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
Real Madrid
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 CAUSEUR, FABIEN 13:55 6 1/1   4/4   3 3 1         3 3 10
6 ABALDE, ALBERTO 15:19 3 0/2 1/2     3 3 1   1     1 2 4
7 TYUS, ALEX 4:45 2 1/1     2   2               4
8 LAPROVITTOLA, NICOLAS 15:08 7 2/4   3/4           1       5 8
9 REYES, FELIPE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 ALOCEN, CARLOS 21:51 8 4/7 0/3     1 1 2 1 1     3 3 5
14 DECK, GABRIEL 25:05 15 4/9 1/2 4/7   3 3 1         3 4 11
16 GARUBA, USMAN 23:10 2 1/1     1 1 2 1 1 1 1   4 1 3
20 CARROLL, JAYCEE 12:03 6 2/3 0/1 2/2       1   1     1 2 5
22 TAVARES, WALTER 23:05 16 8/12   0/1 3 6 9 1   1 1   4 2 19
33 THOMPKINS, TREY 23:30 4 0/1 1/2 1/2   4 4             2 7
44 TAYLOR, JEFFERY 22:09 6 3/3 0/1   2 3 5 2   1 1   3 1 10
Team                                
Totals 200:00 75 26/44 3/11 14/20 8 24 32 10 2 7 3 0 22 25 86
        59.1% 27.3% 70%
Head coach: LASO, PABLO

Head Coaches

PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"Congratulations to Madrid for this game. It was a game that both teams could have won. Unfortunately, in the last part of the game, we were not effective and Madrid used very well the situation that we were in the bonus. Madrid in the last quarter shot 9 free throws and was completely the key of the game. We made some stupid fouls in the beginning of the last quarter and they punished us a lot. Our starting offense could have scored a little bit more. We had some situations, some shots that we could have scored, but unfortunately, we didn’t and we have to congratulate Madrid. If I have to say something negative, it was that we didn’t feel the game well in the beginning of the game and Madrid took this advantage."
LASO, PABLO
Real Madrid
"We had our good, our bad moments. I think the beginning of the third quarter was pretty bad. We were in the bonus in 1:20 and that hurt us. We received 29 points in that quarter. They came back in the game like we talked at halftime. But we were able to keep our composure, play solid defense, rebound and move the ball. And we made key shots that were important at the end of the game. It was very emotional because the game was very tight, Zenit is playing very good, I think Xavi [Pascual] is doing a great job and we knew how difficult it was going to be to win here. I'm very happy for my players that we responded after a tough loss on Tuesday against Khimki. "

Players

DECK, GABRIEL
Real Madrid
"It is a really important win. After the game we played the other day [against Khimki], which was not so good for us, we showed the opposite today, the character that we have and that we must have in every game. The team showed its winning character in the final minutes, not going down, but calmed down and patient to do things right. We know that if we play good defense, we will feel comfortable on offense. We have a lot of players who can score, but it all starts back there with rebounds and defense. We did that great tonight, and I think we did a great job. We have to be focused at all times in all the remaining games and make it to the playoffs."
TAYLOR, JEFFERY
Real Madrid
"If you look at the standings, there are like eight teams with the same type of record, so this game was really important to us, especially after the loss on Tuesday. It's great for us to be able to come here and win. They have a really good team this year. It was a tough game. I think we needed something like this to go on from the game on Tuesday."
TAVARES, WALTER
Real Madrid
"At halftime I said 'they are a great team. They can come back whenever they want.' I think the key was the focus we have and our defense, that helped us a lot to keep up and come back in the game. It was tough [for me] because everybody was trying to get open and shoot threes! So I had more work to do. But it is what it is, I have to fight through it."