By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zenit Saint-Petersburg bounced back emphatically to beat FC Barcelona, 74-61, at Sibur Arena, Friday. The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs best-of-five series is now tied, 2-2.
Kevin Pangos had four points at the break but evolved to the brightest star of Game 4. He poured 22 points, including 12 in the third quarter, and threw in eight assists. The former Gonzaga standout spent his two previous seasons at Barca.
“I think we played great defense, we didn’t give them anything easy,” said Pangos regarding that dimension of the contest, “When we’re hustling around and helping each other like that it’s hard to score on us, so I think that was huge.”
Another major factor was Tarik Black with seven of his 11 points in the third period. His spirited effort on both ends aided Zenit to quickly build a double-digit cushion and getting to a safe distance by the third quarter. Alex Poythress finished with 12 points and Austin Hollins scored 11 points.
“The most important thing was defensive rebounding,” said Black, “If you play good defense, communicate with each other, get stops, and rebound the ball so they only get one opportunity to shoot, you’re in a good position to win and that’s what happened to win.”
Will Thomas had four points plus a game-high nine rebounds. His side dominated the boards, 38-22. The 30 defensive rebounds all but eradicated second-chance opportunities in a struggling shooting night for Barca.
The team led by Sarunas Jasikevicius was held to 23/59 field goals. Nick Calathes connecting three of his side’s four triples went for 19 points. Cory Higgins finished with 13 points.
“I tried to prepare my team for Zenit, a team with great character and fighting spirit. It’s more than obvious that I did not do my job well,” confessed the Lithuanian head coach, “I will try to get through to my guys a little bit better for the deciding game in Barcelona.”
Mateusz Ponitka and Arturas Gudaitis remained out for the hosts again shifting Xavi Pascual’s options further down the bench. The Barcelona boss between 2008 and 2016 managed to hand his former team another loss extending the bid to eliminate the top-ranking team of the Regular Season to next week.
“This is playoff time, every game is different,” pointed out Pascual, “Today everything was fantastic, our players did an amazing job. They followed the plan excellent, and we had control of almost all the game.”
Game 5 will be held Tuesday with the series returning to Spain. Zenit had secured its first win on the road prevailing in Game 1 and paired with its first home playoff win forces the final and deciding meeting of the two sides.