By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Greg Monroe paced FC Bayern Munich to a 77-68 victory over Zenit St Petersburg on the road for Turkish Airlines EuroLeague’s Round 26 with a career-high in the competition of 26 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and a totally dominant performance in crunch time.
Limited as Oliver Kostic’s rotation was (only nine players received game-time), Paul Zipser followed Monroe’s lead with 13 points, while Vladimir Lucic and Danilo Barthel helped the winning side with 10 and 9 points each.
For Zenit this loss marked their fifth in a row, falling further down the standings with a 7-19 record. Gustavo Ayon tried to keep the hosts on board and exited the court with 17 points, five rebounds, while Austin Hollins’ surge in the fourth period (he left the court with 18 points) wasn’t enough for the Russian side to complete its comeback to the game.
Morale-boosting victory
The German side put an end to its four-game losing streak and improved to an 8-18 record in the standings. Though the battle for the playoffs seems distant as of now, Bayern got a valuable victory to escape the bottom of the standings in their second-ever meeting with Zenit in EuroLeague. The German side will look to turn this victory into a streak next week against two tough opponents, Baskonia and Barcelona.
“We had guys who couldn’t help today, we had guys who sacrificed, and that is the reason for the road win. We had so many games where we had a chance to win but at the end of the game, it did not finish well for us. We keep working, we believe, we work hard, and I think in the end everything will come to the right place for us”, said coach Kostic after the game.
Photo: EuroLeague