By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Zenit St. Petersburg outlasted LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 71-61 on the road with a solid defensive display, for Round 15 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and returned to wins after losing their last three games.
The visiting team held on to win this highly-defensive battle, after getting a 10-point edge by the midpoint of the fourth quarter and never looked back. Alex Poythress and Jordan Loyd helped the efforts of Xavi Pascual’s squad with 16 and 15 points respectively.
“Complete team effort after we lost a couple”, said Loyd after the game. “And we just wanted to come on the road and really really fight. We did that, and got a win. We have another big game Friday in Monaco. We just want to build off that. We took a couple of Ls, and we just wanted to bounce back. I am really happy for the club.”
Billy Baron had 14 points and Jordan Mickey was added to the list of top scorers with 10 points, along with 7 rebounds.
ASVEL, which has now lost its third straight game, picked up 12 points by William Howard, while Chris Jones contributed 11 points and Elie Okobo had 9.
Zenit improved to a 9-6 record in the overall standings and will look to turn Wednesday’s victory into a streak when they face Monaco on the road this Friday for Round 16. ASVEL, on the other hand, will seek a victory to improve their 7-7 record when they visit Olympiacos, also on Friday.
Photo: EuroLeague