2020-21Regular SeasonRound 22
FC Barcelona 85
Zenit St Petersburg 81
January 26, 2021 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 PALAU BLAUGRANA

Barcelona holds off Zenit at home

In a battle between two of the best defensive teams in the competition, FC Barcelona registered its fifth consecutive win by downing Zenit St Petersburg 85-81 at Palau Blaugrana on Tuesday. Barcelona improved to 16-6 to remain atop the standings while Zenit dropped to 13-7. Brandon Davies led the winners with 18 points. Kyle Kuric scored 16, Cory Higgins and Nikola Mirotic each added 14, while Nick Calathes dished 12 assists for Barcelona. Andrey Zubkov and Arturas Gudaitis led Zenit with 15 points apiece. Kevin Pangos added 13 while Billy Baron and Mateusz Ponitka each had 10 for the guests. Barcelona, up 16-14 after 10 minutes, extended that lead to 44-33 at halftime and then again to 69-50 at the end of the third quarter. Zenit managed to get within 74-68 in the fourth but Davies and Mirotic sealed the outcome down the stretch.

Pangos got Zenit going with a floater that Alex Abrines bettered that with a three-pointer for the hosts. Will Thomas hit a backdoor layup and Mateusz Ponitka finished a fastbreak for a 3-6 Zenit lead. Mirotic struck from downtown and Higgins dunked in a 9-0 run that Pierre Oriola capped with a layup to put Barca ahead 12-6. Baron and Ponitka downed triples, igniting an 0-8 Zenit run that Gudaitis capped with a power layup, but Higgins and Rolands Smits restored a 16-14 Barcelona lead after 10 minutes. Gudaitis converted a three-point play and Ponitka a second-chance layup to flip the lead at 18-19. That's when Kuric struck twice from beyond the arc and Davies matched Gudaitis's dunk with a reverse slam for a 27-21 Barcelona lead. The hosts kept feeding the unstoppable Kuric, who got help down low from Oriola and Mirotic to make it a double-digit game, 38-27. Higgins kept pacing Barcelona while Baron and Gudaitis kept Zenit within 44-33 at halftime. Calathes hit a jumper and Higgins a fastbreak layup to break the game open, 48-34, after intermission. Davies capped Barcelona's 9-1 run with a jump-hook, good for a 53-34 lead. K.C. Rivers and Austin Hollins each struck from downtown to bring Zenit within 55-41 before Davies, Calathes and Kuric scored around the basket at 61-43. Thomas and Zubkov tried to change things for Zenit but Adam Hanga and Leo Westermann boosted the hosts' lead to 69-50 after 30 minutes. Baron, Ponitka and Vitaly Fridzon fueled a 0-9 run that gave Zenit hope, 69-59, early in the fourth quarter, when Barcelona went scoreless for more than 4 minutes until Davies hit a foul-line jumper and Higgins a coast-to-coast layup. Nonetheless, Zubkov struck twice from downtown to get Zenit within 73-65 with 3 minutes left. Davies took over with a wild three-point play, a block and a jumper that sealed the outcome, 79-68, in the next-to-last minute.

Pivotal performer

In a defensive battle, keeping control of the game was crucial and that was Nick Calathes did for Barcelona. He had an all-around performance, finishing the game with 9 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists, 2 steals and a PIR of 21.

Game-changing moment

Mateusz Ponitka gave Zenit its last lead, 18-19, early in the second quarter. Kyle Kuric, who had been scoreless until then, dynamited the game with three bombs from downtown, a floater and a jumper, allowing Barcelona to get a 36-27 margin. His 13 points in 4 minutes gave Barcelona the lead for good.

Stellar stat

Two-point shots made the difference in this game. Zenit only hit 10 shots inside the arc out of 35 attempts (28.6%). That marked Zenit's lowest two-point shooting percentage ever in the competition. Barcelona hit 24-of-41 two-point shots (58.5%), which allowed it to win the game.

Did you know?

Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual, who led Barcelona to its second and most recent EuroLeague title, in 2010, registered his third loss in as many visits to Palau Blaugrana since parting ways with his former team in 2016. His previous two losses came with Panathinaikos OPAP Athens: 72-57 on December 2, 2016 and 98-71 on October 13, 2017.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action on Thursday of this week. Barcelona visits Olympiacos in a rematch of the 1998 and 2010 EuroLeague Championship Games. Zenit stays on the road to face AX Armani Exchange Milan as Arturas Gudaitis goes against his former team.

Kyle Kuric - FC Barcelona - EB20
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; VILIUS, GYTIS; MOGULKOC, EMIN
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
FC Barcelona16282516
Zenit St Petersburg14191731
End of Quarter1234
FC Barcelona16446985
Zenit St Petersburg14335081
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 24:48 18 8/12   2/3 1 2 3   2 2 1   3 4 18
2 WESTERMANN, LEO 12:26 3   1/2     1 1     1     2    
8 HANGA, ADAM 13:11 2 0/1 0/1 2/2   1 1 1 1   2   3 2 4
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 17:46 2 1/1       3 3 1 1 1 1   2   5
14 PUSTOVYI, ARTEM DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 14:08 4 2/2     2 5 7 1   2 1   3   8
21 ABRINES, ALEX 15:00 3   1/3   1 2 3           4    
22 HIGGINS, CORY 25:59 14 4/7 0/3 6/6   1 1 3 2 6 1   1 5 13
23 MARTINEZ, SERGI 3:08   0/1                   1     -2
24 KURIC, KYLE 26:26 16 3/4 3/3 1/1       3         1 4 21
33 MIROTIC, NIKOLA 20:16 14 2/7 1/1 7/7 1 2 3     1   1 4 4 10
99 CALATHES, NICK 26:52 9 4/6 0/2 1/4   7 7 12 2 3 1   4 4 21
Team           2 2 4               4
Totals 200:00 85 24/41 6/15 19/23 7 26 33 21 8 16 7 2 27 23 102
        58.5% 40% 82.6%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
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 14:10 3 0/2 1/1     1 1     1         1
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 23:54 13 2/7 2/7 3/4 2   2 5 1 4   2 1 6 9
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 12:55 5 0/2 1/2 2/2   1 1 1 2 1     3 3 5
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 15:19 4 0/3 1/2 1/2 1 1 2         1 4 1 -3
10 THOMAS, WILL 22:14 6 2/2   2/2   2 2 2 1       3 3 11
12 BARON, BILLY 21:14 10 1/4 2/4 2/3   4 4 3   1   2 5 3 6
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 4:41   0/1             1       1   -1
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 23:27 15 0/1 5/6     3 3 1   3     3   11
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 32:43 10 2/3 1/4 3/4 2 6 8 5 1 3     2 4 18
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 29:23 15 3/10   9/13 4 2 6 3 2   2 2 1 7 21
Team           4   4     1         3
Totals 200:00 81 10/35 13/26 22/30 13 20 33 20 8 14 2 7 23 27 81
        28.6% 50% 73.3%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
FC Barcelona
"Congratulations to our players and fans. We beat a very good team, a very serious team. For three quarters, we really played good basketball. It happens a lot in these situations, we relaxed and it was actually a dangerous situation at the end. I told my guys that probably we should take the first three quarters and the good basketball that we were playing, and being a veteran team, we cannot let this happen, what we did in the fourth quarter because it is very, very dangerous. In the end, we struggled a bit. We had a good lead, playing good basketball and honestly, in this situation and after so many games, we should have sealed the game earlier and didn't do it. We had a good team in front of us that did its things, too, but I don't want to look for excuses. I believe that a team of our level cannot lose a quarter by 15 points, especially at home. Davies and Mirotic have understood that the team has good dynamics and don't want that to be broken. Niko and Brandon had a very good return to the team and we followed the same direction, giving Cory and Nick a lot of responsibilities. They have integrated themselves into our team but of course, they are two very good players. They are aware they can be decisive and score a lot of points and play an important role, but they returned to the team with a very good, very correct mentality."
PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"First of all, congratulations to FC Barcelona for tonight's game. I think that, generally, they were better than us. It was one game that more or less we were inside of the game for 12-13 minutes, but after that, we did two turnovers in a row, Barcelona played well in that moment of the game and they took this first advantage. In the second half, we didn't find our rhythm on offense, we didn't find our rhythm on defense and we were not effective. In some situations that we took good advantages on offense, either open shots or three-point shots, or inside the paint, we were not effective, generally, tonight. And this is why Barcelona took this big advantage, but in the fourth quarter we showed character, fought until the last second and we had opportunities, really, to change the game a little bit more. But okay, finally we have to say congratulations to Barcelona because as I said before, generally they were better than us. We played with character in the final minutes, fighting until the final moment and trying to use our weapons. We cut turnovers a little bit and were more calmed down and this is why we managed to change the game's dynamics a little bit, which didn't look good for us. On one hand, Barcelona is a very good, very athletic team for us at this moment, so its defensive quality, added to some mistakes that we made, we were not effective and that was important for the outcome of the game."

Players

DAVIES, BRANDON
FC Barcelona
"That's a good team. We knew that they were going to fight until the end with us. We have to do a better job of finishing off the fourth quarters, but we will take the win. I am feeling pretty good. The key for me is recovering after the game, but just that's not just me, that's everyone. Our staff did a really good job of getting me back in shape, so I just have to keep going, keep getting better every day."
CALATHES, NICK
FC Barcelona
"They are a good team. Obviously, we knew that it was going to be a tough game coming in. We had a 20-point lead and I think we got comfortable and we can't get comfortable with a team like this. It was a good win for us. Obviously. we wish we would have won by more but okay, it's a win. We have to keep winning and getting better, game by game."
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