By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Alba Berlin returned to Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after four years and everything was going their way in an 85-65 home win against Zenit St Petersburg which played its first-ever game in the competition.
Landry Nnoko banked 16 points without missing a shot (7-7 FG) followed by Marcus Eriksson with 15 and Tyler Cavanaugh with 11 points. Martin Hermannsson added seven points but dished nine assist as well.
For Zenit, Will Thomas made all three of his three-point attempts and scored 14 points while Tim Abromaitis helped with 12. Thomas also grabbed eight boards.
Continuity
Aito Garcia Reneses has been leading the Alba Berlin project since 2017 and he noted after the game that the roster continuity they have was a big advantage: “This is very good for ALBA, very good for Berlin to begin the EuroLeague like this. It’s a big success but we must know we played a good game but it’s more difficult for Zenit because they have very good players and a very good coach but they did not have time to practice all together, to get to know the philosophy they are going to play. Meanwhile, for us, most of the players are from last year. They know much better how to play. I’m sure in the future Zenit will play much better than today.”
Both teams started the game hot as they combined for 7-12 from behind the arc but Alba had the upper hand after ten minutes (24-18) thanks to great ball movement and Eriksson’s eight points.
Thomas was keeping Zenit in the game with nine points but Alba put a stop to the Russian side’s offensive flow while reaching nine made triples themselves and improving the lead to 47-31 at halftime.
There was no doubt in coach Joan Plaza’s mind that Zenit didn’t deserve to win this match and he blamed the poor second quarter and defense overall for it: “It was a deserved win for ALBA. They played much better than us. There is nothing to discuss here. ALBA broke the game in the second quarter, where they got a big lead. The other quarters were closer but we suffered too much from that deficit. Our defense was poor. We were not boxing out and gave ALBA easy points in one-on-one situations. It is true, that we also missed some easy shots under the basket, but overall we did not deserve the victory today.”
Plaza also talked about Gustavo Ayon’s broken nose and Andrey Zubkov’s broken leg muscle, the injuries which they suffered mid-game.
The hosts kept their shooting percentages high increasing the gap to 23 points (59-36) and although Zenit showed some comeback effort, they couldn’t reach closer than a 14-point margin (71-57) as Alba sealed the deal.
Game Highlights:
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague