2020-21Regular SeasonRound 4
December 08, 2020 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 LA FONTETA

Zenit holds off Valencia to remain perfect on the road

Zenit St Petersburg used a huge third quarter and a big finish to beat Valencia Basket 72-85 in a rescheduled Round 4 game on Tuesday night. Zenit improved to 7-3 and remained perfect on the road with six wins from as many games, while Valencia dropped to 7-5 on the season. No team led by double digits for the first 39 minutes, but Zenit took control in the third quarter when it turned a 6-point halftime deficit into a 5-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Though Valencia got within 72-75 late in the game, Zenit never relinquished the lead and finished the game on a 0-10 run. Kevin Pangos shined with 12 points and a club-record 12 assists. Austin Hollins paced the winners with 20 points, Will Thomas and Alex Poythress added 12 apiece and Mateusz Ponitka scored 10 in the victory. Bojan Dubljevc scored 18 for the hosts and Guillem Vives netted 10 in Valencia's second straight home loss.

Zenit's offense was the first to catch a rhythm with three-pointers from Thomas and Hollins that gave Zenit an early 6-12 advantage. The hosts struggled from the outside, but attacked the basket and dominated the offensive boards. Second-chance baskets from Dubljevic and Mike Tobey helped cut it to 12-16 after 10 minutes and Sam Van Rossom scored 5 points early in the second, including a three-point play to put Valencia in front 21-20. The teams traded close-range baskets with Dubljevic pacing Valencia. Fernando San Emeterio hit a triple and Van Rossom nailed a jumper to make it 33-26. Pangos had Zenit back on track with a three-pointer and a couple of highlight-reel assists, but not before Valencia's lead got to 8 points with a floater from Martin Hermannsson and the hosts went into halftime up 39-33.

The pace picked up as both offenses got on a roll in the second half. Hollins started it with a triple and a runner before a dunk by Poythress put Zenit up 39-40. Dubljevic and Nikola Kalinic scored inside for the hosts, but Pangos had a three-point play. After Vives hit back-to-back threes for Valencia, Ponitka hit one from downtown for Zenit. Pangos fed Thomas for a dunk and Hollins nailed a triple to make it 53-55. Thomas and Dubljevic traded threes and Kalinic scored in the low post to make it 60-58. But Pangos made a triple before Arturas Gudaitis and Hollins scored fastbreak baskets to lead 60-65 after three quarters. K.C. Rivers, scoreless until that point, had a runner and an off-the-dribble triple to stretch the margin to 62-70 early in the fourth. San Emeterio with a floater and Tobey with a two-handed slam halved the deficit, but Ponitka's triple made it 66-75 entering the final 4 minutes. Valencia was not going away and hustle plays from Tobey and Kalinic cut into the deficit. Van Rossom's floater made it 72-75. But that's as close as the hosts got because Pangos made free throws and Rivers came up with a put-back layup, before a three from Hollins sealed the outcome.

Key third quarter

Zenit scored 33 points in the first two quarters and then had 32 in the third quarter alone behind Kevin Pangos running the offense and Will Thomas, Mateusz Ponitka and Austin Hollins scoring from long range.

Roles reversed

Entering this game, Valencia had the top offense with 83.4 points per game and Zenit had the lowest-scoring offense with 73.3. But Zenit went on to score a season-high 85 points on this night, while Valencia was held below 79 points for the first time since Round 2.

Pangos shines

Kevin Pangos set a Zenit club record for assists with 12. The previous best for a Zenit player in a single game was 10 and Pangos had 11 assists before the end of the third quarter. Zenit also tied its single-game record with 24 two-point shots made.

The last unbeaten

Zenit has a 6-0 road record and stands as the last undefeated team of any kind this season in the EuroLeague since there are no more teams with a perfect home record.

Next up

Zenit will be back in action again on Thursday when it pays a visit to Real Madrid for a Round 13 tilt, while Valencia remains at home to host Anadolu Efes Istanbul.

Austin Hollins - Zenit St Petersburg - EB20
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; GKONTAS, SPIROS; UDYANSKYY, EDUARD
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Valencia Basket12272112
Zenit St Petersburg16173220
End of Quarter1234
Valencia Basket12396072
Zenit St Petersburg16336585
Valencia Basket
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 PREPELIC, KLEMEN 18:32 4 1/3 0/4 2/2   2 2     3   2 2 3 -4
4 PRADILLA, JAIME DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 PUERTO, JOSEP DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 24:31 9 4/4 0/3 1/1   4 4 2 2 2     4 2 10
10 TOBEY, MIKE 15:20 8 3/6 0/3 2/2 4 2 6   1 1   1   3 10
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 34:50 8 4/8     2 6 8 4   3 1   4 3 13
14 DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN 24:36 18 7/9 1/3 1/2 3 1 4 3   2     1 1 18
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 15:02 10 2/3 2/3     2 2 1 1 2     3   7
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO 18:37 7 2/3 1/3   1 1 2 1 1       2 3 9
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 26:33 2 0/2   2/2   1 1           1 1 1
24 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 21:59 6 2/4 0/1 2/2       3   1     3 2 4
42 JIMENEZ, MILLAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team           4 2 6               6
Totals 200:00 72 25/42 4/20 10/11 14 21 35 14 5 14 1 3 20 18 74
        59.5% 20% 90.9%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME
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 28:39 7 2/4 1/4   2 6 8 2 1       1 3 15
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 29:23 12 1/2 2/4 4/5   1 1 12 1 3       5 24
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 4:38   0/1 0/1                   1   -3
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 29:48 20 4/5 4/7   1 1 2   3   1   1 1 22
10 THOMAS, WILL 25:44 12 3/4 2/5     4 4 1 1   1   1 1 15
12 BARON, BILLY 3:44     0/2                   1 1 -2
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV 3:09                         1   -1
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 14:33 4 2/4 0/2             1     3 1 -3
22 POYTHRESS, ALEX 20:27 12 6/9 0/1   2 3 5     1   1 4   7
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 20:47 10 2/2 2/3     1 1 4 1 3 1   1 3 15
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 19:08 8 4/5     1 2 3 1 1 1     4 2 9
Team           2   2     1         1
Totals 200:00 85 24/36 11/29 4/5 8 18 26 20 8 10 3 1 18 17 99
        66.7% 37.9% 80%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket
"I think in the beginning of the game, they knew how to attack us. Our defense, we had doubts in the beginning of the game, but in the second quarter we had defense, we found our offense and played a pretty good second quarter. The third quarter we started badly, they forced us to play in the way we did not want to play. We could not find any players with accuracy. It was a very frustrating end of the game, we did not find accuracy, we did not find our basketball, we did not find any rhythm, and at the end they won the game they deserved to win."
PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"At halftime, we talked about focus and we also talked to be more effective, we had open shots we did not make, and we said we have to keep shooting. That is what we did and we had an excellent second half. We moved the ball well and had one excellent game only 48 hours after we played UNICS Kazan [in the VTB United League]."

Players

TOBEY, MIKE
Valencia Basket
"It was a hard-fought game. In the first half for both teams, it was a kind of a defensive battle, neither could really score too much. In the third quarter, they scored a lot of points and kind of got away from us. I thought we fought hard, it was close, especially at the end there. It is a tough one, this would have been a good one to get. We just got to move on. We got another game on Thursday, gotta get ready for that one."
HOLLINS, AUSTIN
Zenit St Petersburg
"The guys came out focused, came out ready to execute the game plan. You can see in the second half, we came out and really did that. [Being undefeated on the road] definitely sounds good. We want to get them where we can. The EuroLeague is tough, any night any team can win, so you got to come ready, come focused every single night and be ready to play."
PANGOS, KEVIN
Zenit St Petersburg
"It is easy when my teammates are making shots like that. I thought we played a great game, I thought we battled for 40 minutes. We just played as a team today, that was huge. We will take any win we can get, at home or on the road, it does not really matter. In the EuroLeague anyone can win any night, we know that and I think it was a great effort by our team to beat a great Valencia team."
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