By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zenit St. Petersburg is riding the wave, Milan was missing injured Dinos Mitoglou and when it was all said and done the Russian team got a big 74-70 home win.
The two teams are now tied at 8-3 and the third spot in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
The hosts finished the game with a 8-4 run in the last four minutes of action and Jordan Loyd with a big three (71-66) gave to Zenit a solid advantage.
In total he had 13 points and dished seven assists while grabbing six rebounds, Arturas Gudaitis also added 13 and seven rebounds, but Jordan Mickey was the top scorer of the winning side with 17.
Milan had a good start (12-4) and Zenit got a seven-point advantage in the third (57-50). However, with four minutes left the score was tied at 66.
“It was a real EuroLeague game, two teams fighting until the end”, said Zenit coach Xavi Pascual. “We played against an amazing team, an amazing coach, and amazing players, like Chacho Rodriguez, who I always dreamed about coaching but never did. I think we have to be happy for tonight’s win, even though we shot very bad at three-pointers, only 24%. We were fighintg until the end. In the last quarter, we played great defense and controlled the rebounds, and that was also the key. Some offensive rebounds gave us second chances and free throws, and in a game like this, that both teams could have won, one detail decided it.”
Sergio Rodriguez with 20 points and six assists tried his best to save the day for the Italians, Kyle Hines added 12 points and Shavon Shields had 10.
As coach Ettore Messina said: ““It was a hard-fought game on both sides. It came down to missing a couple of shots by us, them making a couple of shots. A couple of loose balls went their way. I am very proud of what my team did after a bad loss three days ago.”