By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Coach Xavi Pascual returned once more to his home country and the end result was impressive for his new team. Zenit St. Petersburg got the 85-72 road win against ambitious Valencia with the two teams now having seven wins and staying unbeaten in six road games since the start of the season.
Still, the Russian side has a better record (7-3) compared to Valencia (7-5) and so far only Barcelona and CSKA which are tied on the top of the standings have only three defeats and also nine wins.
Thanks to a stellar third quarter in which Zenit scored 32 points, the guests entered the last period with a 65-60 lead and never lost it until the final buzzer.
“At halftime, we talked about focus and we also talked about being more effective, we had open shots we did not make, and we said we have to keep shooting”, said Pascual after the game. “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].”
Austin Hollins with 17 points was the top scorer, Alex Poythress and Will Thomas with 12 points each did their part in the paint, but Kevin Pangos with 12 points and 12 assists was the leader of the winning side.
“It is easy when my teammates are making shots like that”, said Pangos. “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.”
Valencia managed to cut the lead to three (75-72) with two minutes left in the game after a 6-0 run. However, a technical foul to Sam Van Rossom and a disqualifying foul to Nikola Kalinic in the next possession ended Valencia’s hopes for a comeback.
Bojan Dubljevic scored 18 points for the hosts and Guillem Vives with 10 was the only other player in double-digits.