Zenit also harshly punishes Baskonia (83-54)

The Zenit de San Petersburgo aggravated this Friday, with a resounding victory for 83-54, the nightmare in Russia of the Battles of the Basque Country, which was unable to maintain the level it offered in the first quarter and suffered a new blow in the seventh round of the Euroleague.

After falling 83-69 on Wednesday in Kazan, the Catalans scored seven points in the second and third quarters, which resulted in an overwhelming partial (44-14 between the two quarters) that knocked Baskonia down on the canvas and left him unable to react.

Jordan Loyd, with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, was the best of the squad of Xavi Pascual, which was much higher in the rebound and ended with a valuation of 107 points by 40 of the Basque team, which once again concluded a game with shooting percentages below 36%.

Landry Nnoko marked the initial path of the Baskonists, who started with more energy than the Russians, who lived on the inspiration of Loyd in the initial minutes.

Two triples of Jayson Granger corroborated the good start of the Basque team, which opened the first gap of the match with eight points in their favor, but the errors of the men of Dusko Ivanovic allowed Zenit to come close at the end of the first round, 21-23.

The Catalans recovered sensations with a partial of 0-7 at the start of the second act, but the triples and the energy of Alex Poythress returned the coin to Baskonia with a 24-0 in favor of those of Xavi Pascual to turn the result around.

Old ghosts reappeared in an unplugged team, which was overcome by the speed of its rival and the spark that a Zenit put on the floor that grew with the passing of the minutes. Baskonia stopped scoring in the last 6:30 minutes and went into halftime with a 45-30 against.

The exchange of baskets after the changing rooms favored the locals, who pulled on the individual talent of their men, but three triples in a row from Zenit further increased the income to 28 points.

The indentation on the rebound marked differences and the partial reached a 44-7 in 16 minutes, after a 16-0, which left Baskonia knocked out, without ideas, and the game sentenced to ten minutes from time (65-37).

Those of Dusko Ivanovic They tried to react to end the game with better feelings, but Zenit kept their level and the Catalans had a very long game that had little history from the break.

Datasheet:

83 – Zenit (21+24+20+18): Loyd (20), Ponitka (4), Kulagin (12), Mickey (10), Gudaitis (8) – cinco inicial – Zakharov (-), Poythress (8), Zubkov (6), Kuzminskas (3), Baron ( 10), Frankamp (2) y Karasev (-).

54 – Battles of the Basque Country (23 + 7 + 7 + 17): Granger (13), Baldwin (12), Fontecchio (12), Costello (1) and Nnoko (9) -starting five-, Barrera (-), Sedekerskis (-), Marinkovic (-), Enoch (4) and Kurucs (3).

Referees: Robert Lottermoser (Germany), Tomislav Hordov (Croatia) and Uros Obrknezevic (Serbia). Without eliminated.