By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Billy Baron hit a 3-pointer with nine seconds to play to hand Zenit St. Petersburg a 73 – 71 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv at home. This victory improved Zenit to 11 – 6 at the end of the first leg of the EuroLeague regular season while Maccabi fell to 7-10 after suffering its seventh defeat in a row.
Scottie Wilbekin missed the jumper from close after Baron’s go-ahead 3-pointer. The American guard had previously stolen the ball after a bad pass by Dmitry Kulagin, sending to Derrick Williams for the dunk that made it 70 – 71. It was the first lead of Maccabi in the game and it happened after a comeback from down 15 at halftime that was powered by a tremendous Jalen Reynolds (24 points, 11 rebounds vs. his former team).
Baron finished with 12 points and Alex Poythress had 14 points for Zenit while playing the key defense on Wilbekin in the last moments of the match.
“We had the lead and cannot let it get away from us, and they made a run, but we made plays at the end. Guda [Gudaitis] got some good rebounds, Billy [Baron] made some shots and we really locked in and played defense in the last couple of minutes,” Poythress said. “Thanks a lot to the fans for supporting us all here. Hopefully, you will keep supporting us through these tough times in the pandemic. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!”
Despite making 19 turnovers, Maccabi erased a 10-point deficit in the last three minutes to get the lead. The Yellows were one Baron shot away from a win that would snap their skid but didn’t manage to finish the job.
“It is very hard to talk after the way we lost the game tonight,” Maccabi coach Giannis Sfairopoulos. “I think that as we played in the second half and as we got the lead in the final seconds of the game, it is very hard to lose the game like that.”
“We continue, starting from the second half, and I hope that this second half, the way that the fought and the way that we played against a very good team like Zenit, will give us the direction of how we have to play from now on,” he added.
It all came down to details
Zenit coach Xavi Pascual pointed out how a simple sequence of plays decided the final outcome after his team looked to be in control down the stretch.
“First of all, thanks to all the people that were in the stadium tonight,” Pascual said. “Thank you very much, they helped us a lot during the game. I think this was a game in which we played very well in the first 20 minutes. I think that in the third quarter, it was a little bit normal that Maccabi reacted and made it difficult for us to go in the same direction. I think that until 5 minutes before the end, this was one game that we were leading by 10 but in the last 5 minutes, we didn’t control the game and had too many turnovers and this is why Maccabi found the way to be back despite the fact that our defense was more or less okay. They scored in the fastbreak because of our turnovers. But okay, sometimes it is like this, and in the last part of the game, one good offense and one good defense decided the game for our side. We are happy for this win, obviously.”