2019-20Regular SeasonRound 20
Zenit St Petersburg 81
Valencia Basket 86
January 17, 2020 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 SIBUR ARENA

Valencia hits threes, holds off Zenit

Valencia Basket registered its third consecutive road win, holding off a late comeback by Zenit St Petersburg to pull out an 81-86 win on Friday night. Valencia improved to 10-10 on the season, while Zenit dropped to 6-14. Valencia never trailed in the second half, and held a 14-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, but the hosts needed less than 5 minutes to erase the deficit. However, Aaron Doornekamp hit a pair of triples in the final 4 minutes, to help Valencia restore the advantage and secure victory. Vanja Marinkovic netted 14 points in 13 minutes to lead Valencia in scoring. Brock Motum had 12 points, while Doornekamp and Maurice Ndour had 11 apiece in victory. Sam Van Rossom contributed with 9 points and 8 assists. EuroLeague rookie Andrew Albicy scored his competition-best 18 points for Zenit. Andrey Zubkov had 13, and Evgeny Voronov netted 10 in a losing effort.

Valencia made the first little run, sparked with a triple from Ndour to make it 4-9. The hosts answered scoring 8 consecutive points, as Alex Renfroe had a three-point play and Mateusz Ponitka followed it with a three-pointer. Zenit dominated the offensive glass and increased it to 16-11, but the visitors scored the last 9 points of the quarter. Marinkovic hit a three to end the scoring in the first, and Motum nailed one to open the second for a 16-23 lead. Albicy knocked down a jumper and a three for the hosts, and Zenit kept closing in with help of put-backs from Tim Abromaitis and Colton Iverson. Albicy's transition three-pointer gave Zenit 34-32, but Ndour snapped a 9-0 run with a second-chance layup before fastbreak baskets from Fernando San Emeterio and Jordan Loyd restored the visitors' lead. The half ended with San Emeterio and Loyd each hitting a triple on one end, and Albicy nailing a pair for the hosts to make it 42-46 at halftime. Alberto Abalde's triple was the lone basket in the first 3 minutes of the second half, before the teams traded baskets inside. Zenit remained successful crashing the offensive glass, but Doornekamp's triple made it 46-54 midway through the third. The visitors stepped up on defense to keep the margin safe, and Motum scored 5 points in the final 40 seconds of the quarter, including a last-second three-point play extending it to 51-63. A triple-plus-foul from Marinkovic widened the gap to 53-67 in the opening minute of the fourth, before Vladislav Trushkin, Albicy and Zubkov started Zenit's charge. Van Rossom hit a three-pointer, but Voronov answered with one of his own. A three-point play from Zubkov and another three from Voronov tied it at 74-74 with 4:25 to go, but Ndour inside and Doornekamp from outside restored Valencia's lead. Another three-pointer from Doornekamp extended it to 76-84 in penultimate minute, as Valencia closed it out.

Three-point success

Valencia hit 11-for-17 from three-point range for a club single-game record 64.7%. Eight different Valencia players made at least one three point shot. Interestingly, in the first leg between these two teams, Valencia made 16-for-29 threes for 55.2%, which was the only time this season they shot above 50% before this game.

Overcoming offensive boards

Zenit outrebounded Valencia 18-6 on the offensive glass. Valencia entered this game as the top offensive rebounding team (11.95 per game), and Zenit was just behind (11.84). But in this one, with the visitors shorthanded inside missing Bojan Dubljevic and Mike Tobey, Zenit dominated the boards. However, Valencia overcame that with three-point shooting and its defense in the first three quarters.

Free throw perfect

It is a rarity, but there were no missed free throws in this game. Zenit made 6 of 6, and Valencia hit all 11 of its foul shots.

Tallying victories

Valencia has not only won two games on Russian soil this week, but has now won its last three road games, also registering wins in four of its last five games and six of its last eight. After a 0-5 start, Valencia is now 10-10.

Next up

Next week in round 21, Valencia will be back to Russia to face defending champ CSKA Moscow, while Zenit remains at home to take on Olympiacos Piraeus.

Vanja Marinkovic - Valencia Basket - EB19
Friday, January 17, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: PATERNICO, CARMELO; DIFALLAH, MEHDI; GKONTAS, SPIROS
Attendance: 4730
By Quarter1234
Zenit St Petersburg1626930
Valencia Basket20261723
End of Quarter1234
Zenit St Petersburg16425181
Valencia Basket20466386
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 16:34 8 4/6     5 2 7 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 13
6 ALBICY, ANDREW 23:50 18 3/4 4/6         4 1       2   18
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 20:58 3   1/5   1 1 2   2     1 2 2 2
10 THOMAS, WILL 22:46 4 1/2 0/3 2/2       2 1       1 1 3
12 RENFROE, ALEX 17:14 5 2/2 0/3 1/1 1 1 2 1   2     1 2 4
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV 12:26 9 3/5 1/3         1       1 1   4
18 VORONOV, EVGENY 18:19 10 2/5 2/3   1 1 2 1 1       1 2 11
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 19:36 13 5/8 0/2 3/3 2 2 4     1     3 2 10
21 ABROMAITIS, TIM 8:42 2 1/1 0/2     2 2           2 2 2
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 19:35 5 1/4 1/4   2 3 5     2     2 3 3
34 AYON, GUSTAVO 20:00 4 2/4     4 1 5 2 2 2     2 1 8
Team           2   2     1         1
Totals 200:00 81 24/41 9/31 6/6 18 13 31 13 8 10 1 3 19 16 79
        58.5% 29% 100%
Head coach: PLAZA, JOAN
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
Valencia Basket
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 COLOM, QUINO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 MARINKOVIC, VANJA 12:50 14 2/3 2/3 4/4   2 2     1     4 2 11
3 LOYD, JORDAN 23:32 9 3/8 1/2     1 1 3 3 2     1 2 9
5 NDOUR, MAURICE 23:01 11 3/4 1/1 2/2 1 4 5   2 2 2   2 8 23
6 ABALDE, ALBERTO 20:42 9 3/3 1/2     2 2 1   2     2   7
7 LABEYRIE, LOUIS 16:59   0/2               1     3   -6
9 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 22:19 9 2/4 1/1 2/2 1 2 3 8   2       1 17
12 MOTUM, BROCK 15:47 12 4/4 1/2 1/1 1 1 2 2   1     2 2 14
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 21:47 4 2/4 0/2         3   2 1 1 2 1  
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO 18:50 7 1/2 1/1 2/2   3 3 1   2       2 10
30 SASTRE, JOAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
42 DOORNEKAMP, AARON 24:13 11 1/1 3/3     2 2 1   1       1 14
Team           3 3 6               6
Totals 200:00 86 21/35 11/17 11/11 6 20 26 19 5 16 3 1 16 19 105
        60% 64.7% 100%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME

Head Coaches

PLAZA, JOAN
Zenit St Petersburg

"Speaking honestly, I think that Valencia deserved this victory more than us. So we need to be able to congratulate them in general terms. We didn't have a great night. I don't know how many games we have played this season, and people know that I never make excuses: never with the refs, never with the court, nothing. But it's true that today I saw my players tired. They were always a second late arriving, like they were playing with a bag of stones on their backs. Everything we did with good intentions and great professionalism, most of us. But the guys who got us back in the game were the fresh guys: when we put Trushkin on the court, and Voronov and Zubkov. The fresh guys are the guys who tied the game. And finally, we are not playing with enough patience – even me – to win a game. In the end, it's tough to play two games in 48 hours. It's tough when they had one more day free than us, but it's no excuse. They deserved the victory and we need to learn how we need to use better our weapons. If we don't have the starters in good shape, we need to play the guys on the bench or the guys practicing well more than they did today."

"I think that Valencia deserved this victory, we should congratulate them. We didn’t have the best night for sure. If you know me, you know that I never look for excuses, never. I think that the players felt tiredness today. We had professionalism in what we were doing but Valencia came here with one more day to rest than us. The difference was cut by Voronov, Trushkin and Zubkov. Maybe we need to use our weapons more."

PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket

"We think that we live every moment. It's very important to live every moment against a team like Zenit, which has great defense, is very consistent and offensively skillful and dynamic. We had a lot of problems with rebounds; they had 18 offensive rebounds. But we lived through that situation with good passing and good mentality, and in the end we won the game."

"We started the game with good concentration. We knew that Zenit is a good team, both offensively and defensively, and they’re really improving these last couple of games. We also knew that it’s very important to defend with good concentration and just seize our moments. The second quarter was crazy for us, we had many ups and downs, but after halftime we came out and played like we can play and made the difference."

Players

NDOUR, MAURICE
Valencia Basket
"It was a team effort. We are 14 guys, and when one man is down somebody else needs to step up. Today we showed we can play. It was a team effort, and we just need to build off of this."
MARINKOVIC, VANJA
Valencia Basket
"I think with these two wins this week, and the one against ALBA couple of weeks ago, this team has the potential be in the top eight and fight for a spot in the playoffs. I think we stopped their offensive rebounds, we ran good, and played smart in the last 5 or 6 minutes."
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