By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Tornike Shengelia scored a game-high 20 points en route to surpassing the 1.500-point mark while grabbing seven rebounds to lead Baskonia to a 70-60 win over Zenit St. Petersburg at home for Round 10 of the EuroLeague season.
“Everybody contributed especially the last few games defensively; we changed the pace”, Shengelia said after the game. “We put more energy and more energy. I’m very happy and proud of my team and the coaching staff and I hope we can build on this. This team never surrenders. It’s the character of Baskonia and hopefully, we can build on this and from tomorrow, we will think about the next game coming up.”
This was the second win in a row for Baskonia and a result that got them to 5-5. The Mateusz Ponitka-less Zenit suffered its fifth straight loss and sank to the bottom of the standings at 2-8, the worst record in the competition. Gustavo Ayon had 18 points, Tim Abromaitis 11 points and six boards and Austin Hollins 10 points for Zenit.
Zenit had recovered from a 10-point deficit (38 – 28) to make it 44 – 42 but Baskonia answered in style to take a 13-point lead, 57 – 44, three minutes into the final period. The hosts remained at the driver’s seat until the end.
Matt Janning added 11 points and Luca Vildoza posted 10 points, five rebounds and four assists for Baskonia.
“You need to score against teams in the EuroLeague”
Coach Velimir Perasovic was happy about the result and the defense, but he admitted that he would like his team to be more productive in the offensive end: “I think that we played very solid defensively. We had a problem offensively, we didn’t have good timing, but defensively we made the good hustle and in a lot of situations they couldn’t take easy shots, so this was key today. Sometimes, you need to score against teams in the EuroLeague. When they score very easy, you need to score, too. Today, we did enough but we’ll see in the next few games.”
Photo credit: EuroLeague