By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Zenit St Petersburg was the last team to enter the playoffs with the eighth seed, though their label of “underdog” didn’t come to play on Wednesday. In their maiden appearance in the playoffs, they crushed top-seeded FC Barcelona with a 76-74 victory in Game 1 at the Palau Blaugrana.
Kevin Pangos scored 14 of his total 19 points in the first half as Zenit accumulated 48 points to lead the way by 14 after the first 20 minutes. The hosts, who are seeking their first Final Four qualification since 2014 didn’t go down without a fight, and managed to reduce the deficit by the end of the third to 54-61.
Kyle Kuric (12 points) went on for back-to-back efforts to make it a two-point game three minutes into the fourth period, and things started heating up for the visitors, who saw big man Arturas Gudaitis leaving the floor hopping on his leg after a bad fall. Cory Higgins tied the score to 68 points and the Blaugranas eventually grabbed a one-point lead as the game entered crunch time.
KC Rivers (11 points) buried a long three-pointer to restore the advantage for his team before Brandon Davies flew over the basket to even the score once again. Pangos found the open lane and Zenit held on to its slight advantage to steal the win.
It was a “homecoming” night for coach Xavi Pascual, who also made his re-appearance to the playoffs after departing from Barcelona in 2016.
“The bad news, again, is that we have one more injured player, now Arturas Gudaitis. We are completely unlucky because he is an extremely important player for us and after Mateusz Ponitka, is a big crash for us”, he commented briefly on Gudaitis’ injury.
“But we have to find the way to continue. Game 2 is on Friday and we have to continue playing the way we did all season. We have to continue like this: good defense, good organization on offense, knowing what we have to do in any occasion and nothing else. We have to continue.”
Barcelona had Davies posting 18 points, as Cory Higgins followed with 15 and Nikola Mirotic tapped 10.
Photo: EuroLeague