2020-21PlayoffsGame 3
April 28, 2021 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 SIBUR ARENA

Barca triumphs in St Petersburg to take series lead

FC Barcelona held off pesky Zenit St Petersburg 70-78 on Wednesday at Sibur Arena to take a 2-1 lead in the teams' best-of-five Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs series. In doing so, Barcelona regained the home-court advantage it had lost when Zenit won Game 1 in Spain. The visitors led throughout the second half, but Zenit kept it close and got within 1 early in the fourth quarter. Brandon Davies came through with two key baskets in the final 2 minutes to help preserve the win. Davies led all scorers with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, Cory Higgins added 16 points, Kyle Kuric netted 13 and Nikola Mirotic had 11. Billy Baron paced the home team with 19 points, Alex Poythress scored 14 and Will Thomas and Kevin Pangos added 10 points each.


Barcelona got the start it wanted with a tip-in from Davies, a jumper from Higgins and free throws by Mirotic. Zenit committed 2 early turnovers and starting center Tarik Black took a seat with 2 early fouls as the hosts were held scoreless for 3 and a half minutes before K.C. Rivers got things going with a triple. Poythress took charge with an alley-oop dunk, a block and a layup to tie the game before Kuric drained a three for the visitors. Poythress remained hot and Thomas's free throws gave Zenit its first lead, 14-13. A three by Kuric evened the score at 16-16 after 10 minutes. Pau Gasol started the second quarter and his first touch resulted in an assist to Kuric for a triple, though Baron matched him to make it 21-19. Poythress dunked again and Baron stretched the lead to 6. Higgins revived the visitors with a three and then Davies dunked and sank a three to push the visitors back in front, 30-31. After Nick Calathes added a three, Pangos made 2 free throws to bring the hosts within 33-34 at the break.

Davies remained hot with a put-back and a three as Barcelona looked to pull away. A jumper by Calathes made it 35-41. Pangos and Higgins swapped threes before Kuric put back his own missed shot to extend the lead. Mirotic gave Barcelona the game's first double-digit advantage, 42-52. Baron led the Zenit comeback with free throws, a layup and a three in the last 90 seconds of the third quarter to get the hosts within 51-55. Pangos left the court and headed straight to the locker room after suffering a cut on his forehead, but that did not affect Baron, who nailed his third three of the night. The teams traded points and Gasol netted free throws to stretch the lead to 58-63. A three-point play by Mirotic sent Poythress to the bench with 5 fouls. Pangos returned and Baron scored to make it 60-66 with 6 minutes to play. Higgins hit free throws for a 62-70 cushion with 2:44 to play. After a timeout, Pangos scored twice in succession. Davies was summoned off the bench and scored twice for Barcelona to all but wrap up the win at 66-74 with less than a minute left.

Deciding basket

The momentum seemed to be with the hosts after Kevin Pangos scored twice to bring Zenit within 4 with 2 minutes remaining. Coach Jasikevicius turned to his bench and summoned three of his top offensive weapons: Brandon Davies, Nikola Mirotic and Kyle Kuric. Davies immediately scored in the paint and – after Pangos missed a three – Davies wrestled away a rebound from Tarik Black to force a jump ball, won the tip and scored again to all but put the game on ice.

Standout performer

Brandon Davies not only all led all players in scoring with 22 points and led Barcelona in rebounding with 8, but he also helped wrap up the game with baskets on back-to-back possessions after Zenit got within 66-70 with 2 minutes to play. He made 7 of 12 two-pointers, 2 of 2 threes and 2 of 4 free throws and also had 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 3 turnovers in compiling a performance index rating of 28.

The numbers

Barcelona dominated the glass 26-39, including 14 offensive rebounds. The visitors turned those into 19 second-chance points, which were 8 more than Zenit.

What's next?

The two teams meet on Friday for Game 4 of the series. A victory for the hosts will force a fifth game in Barcelona the following week. A Barcelona victory will send it to the Final Four for the first time since 2014.

Brandon Davies - FC Barcelona - EB20
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; HORDOV, TOMISLAV ; NIKOLIC, UROS
Attendance: 5187
By Quarter1234
Zenit St Petersburg16171819
FC Barcelona16182123
End of Quarter1234
Zenit St Petersburg16335170
FC Barcelona16345578
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 33:48 8 1/2 2/5     3 3           1 4 10
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS 5:15   0/1           1         1 1  
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 31:48 10 2/5 1/4 3/4   2 2 6 1 6   1 2 4 7
7 FRIDZON, VITALY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 23:12 1 0/4   1/2       1       1 2 1 -5
10 THOMAS, WILL 32:04 10 2/5   6/6 4 5 9 4   1 1   2 3 21
12 BARON, BILLY 21:02 19 4/6 3/5 2/2       3   2     4 3 15
13 KHVOSTOV, DMITRY 3:07                         1   -1
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 0:18                              
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 12:19       0/2   1 1   1       1 4 3
22 POYTHRESS, ALEX 23:47 14 7/11   0/1 2 3 5 1 1   2 1 5 1 13
28 BLACK, TARIK 13:20 8 3/8 0/1 2/2 2 1 3   1 1     5 2 2
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 70 19/42 6/15 14/19 10 16 26 16 4 10 3 3 24 23 68
        45.2% 40% 73.7%
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
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 24:42 22 7/12 2/2 2/4 4 4 8 2 1 3 2   4 7 28
8 HANGA, ADAM 21:58 6 3/5     2 2 4   1 1   1   1 8
9 BOLMARO, LEANDRO 7:18   0/2               2     2   -6
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 19:29   0/1 0/1   1 4 5         1 3   -1
16 GASOL, PAU 6:42 2 0/2 0/1 2/2 1 2 3 1           2 5
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 5:58           1 1     1     3   -3
21 ABRINES, ALEX 14:36 1 0/1 0/1 1/2   1 1           2 3  
22 HIGGINS, CORY 23:12 16 2/4 2/3 6/7   3 3     3   1 2 4 13
23 MARTINEZ, SERGI 0:12                         1   -1
24 KURIC, KYLE 21:50 13 2/5 3/4   1 1 2   1         1 13
33 MIROTIC, NIKOLA 23:09 11 3/6 0/1 5/5   3 3 1 1 3 1   4 6 12
99 CALATHES, NICK 30:54 7 2/5 1/1         6   2     2   6
Team           5 4 9               9
Totals 200:00 78 19/43 8/14 16/20 14 25 39 10 4 15 3 3 23 24 83
        44.2% 57.1% 80%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
"First of all thankyou to all the supporters who were with us. It was an amazing atmosphere and I have to say thankyou to them. This was a game that clearly we lost because of defensive rebounding and turnovers. For us this in this series it’s crucial, but Barca has this quality, has the size and amazing players. We didn't control the defensive rebounds. We had some turnovers in offense because we a little bit hesitated, which is something that happens. We have to continue. We have to say to our players congratulations for how they tried. We fought until the end."
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
FC Barcelona

"It was a suffering, like we expected. Like was are talking [about] all the time, I think my guys should be really proud of how they suffered, how they were making this as much as possible everything difficult for Zenit. It was not perfect, we could have put the game away earlier. But this is most important. These are the deciding moments of the season. Without suffering, we are not going anywhere."

"We were playing very good at the end of the second [quarter]. We were playing very good at the beginning of the third. The team made incredible amounts of mistakes at the end of the third. We could have been much tougher defensively. We had 3 fouls to give, the players on the court didn't have foul trouble. We gave three-point shots, we gave penetrations. I thought we came, we played serious basketball. We didn't give Zenit anything easy and at the moment we were ready to suffer. That's what I call these baskets at the end of possessions when Zenit jump switches with a point guard in their defense at the end and it's just time to suffer a little bit. And if we cannot punish the great defense of Zenit, we must punish it with offensive rebounds. This was important. Our guys understood it. I thought we made key plays in the second half. We scored in the second half 44 points. It's very good against such a good defense."

Players

HIGGINS, CORY
FC Barcelona
"As long as we execute properly, we always like our chances to win. We fought harder today and that’s why we came out with the win today."
DAVIES, BRANDON
FC Barcelona
"Each game [against Zenit] has been difficult. Now the next step is to get recovered and ready for another difficult game. We are taking it one game at a time. Most important, like I said, is recovering after this game because it was a hard-fought battle. I think we just have to be ready for the next one."
No results found.