By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Fiery Kevin Pangos dropped 15 points in the first 10 minutes with three shots from behind the arc to set the mood for a spectacular Zenit St Petersburg win.
The Russian side delivered and prevailed over Crvena Zvezda 98-69 in Round 16 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to bounce back from Friday’s defeat against CSKA Moscow and improve to a 9-5 record.
“I think tonight was a team effort. Everyone contributed and did their part when they got on the court. That’s what you need in a game like this. It was one of our most complete performances from start to finish”, said Pangos who completed the game with 17 points overall along with 5 assists to pace Zenit, while KC Rivers emerged as the top scorer of the game with a season-high of 23 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Arturas Gudaitis had 12 points and Billy Baron added 13.
Baron raised the deficit to 24 points (40-16) early in the second period before Zvezda started fighting back and closed the gap to 48-37 at halftime.
The Serbian team reported new COVID-19 cases on Sunday that resulted in the postponement of its Round 11 ABA League game against Cedevita Olimpija and with Jordan Loyd missing from the squad due to injury, things went to a downward spiral in St. Petersburg despite the short comeback.
Zenit managed to restore a 30-point lead entering the fourth quarter and celebrated a big victory. Zvezda falls further down the standings with a 5-11 record after this defeat, despite the efforts of Johnny O’Bryant (13 points) and Dejan Davidovac (10 points).
“Today we did everything okay. We had one moment in the second quarter when they were better than us, but over the whole game, we did a great job. We approached the game well on defense and after that, on offense, we had this calm that sometimes we didn’t have. Tonight we have to be happy and congratulate the players for a great job”, were Xavi Pascual’s remarks after the game.
Photo: EuroLeague