Zenit beat PARMA at home in quarterfinals game 1 – 86:66 (20:18, 19:15, 29:21, 18:12).
Top scorers
Zenit: Kevin Pangos (17 + 8 assists), Tarik Black (12 + 5 rebounds), Austin Hollins (11), Will Thomas (10 + 5 rebounds), Vitaly Fridzon (10).
PARMA: Eigirdas Zukauskas (15), Mareks Mejeris (9), Vladimir Ivlev (7 + 8 rebounds).
Story
PARMA approached the game with serious losses: guards Adas Juskevicius and Lorenzo Williams are out for the rest of the season due to injuries. Pitersburg used the absence of their opponent’s leaders to take an immediate 7-2 lead. However, Ural players woke up pretty quickly. In the second half they managed to slow it down and make it even, but a well substituted Billy Baron didn’t let PARMA take the lead for good – 20:18 in favor of Zenit.
Early in the second quarter the visitors’ sharp shooters made themselves known: three three-pointers by Konstantin Bulanov and one by Eigirdas Zukauskas gave the Ural players the lead for the first time – 30:28. A timeout by Xavi Pascual proved a lifesaver for the home team. Zenit stepped up their defense, not allowing their opponent to score for nearly four minutes. Tarik Black was the brightest player on the floor, making big baskets, drawing fouls and getting rebounds on both boards. The American center scored 8 points in the second quarter, and Zenit took a 39-33 lead into the break.
🔥 @TarikBlack25 SLAMS at home! pic.twitter.com/s3U86lKnb7
— VTB League (@VTBUL) May 11, 2021
After the break, Kevin Pangos, Will Thomas and Vitaly Fridzon took the baton from their teammates and made 4 three-pointers, increasing the home team’s lead to +14. PARMA tried to chase them, even registering 5-point breaks, but the Petersburg club kept their offense perfectly balanced and would not let their opponent get close. Zenit guard Denis Zakharov made a beautiful end to the quarter with a long-range shot in the final seconds, 68-54.
Key moment
The final quarter began optimistically for the visitors – a 6-2 run to -11, but Pangos and Hollins immediately cooled the Urals’ enthusiasm with three straight bombs from beyond the arc. Andrei Zubkov decided the game. The forward scored four points on two possessions for Zenit, and the home team’s lead was 86-64. Petersburg had no problem taking the game to victory and taking the series lead.
Hero
Kevin Pangos. As usual, the guard was first offensive option for Zenit, but he did good at passing the ball, he scored 17 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds and 16 efficiency points.
Stat
1 – this is the first play-off game for the Perm team in the United League.
Comments
Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual:
— We won the home game. Now we need to go to Perm and have a good game there. We respect PARMA and its coach, we understand that it won’t be easy to win after 48 hours, but we’ll try to prepare well for the game. In the first half of the game today we could not make a few open shots, committed turnovers, but overall we worked all 40 minutes, going step by step.
PARMA head coach Kazys Maksvytis:
– I want to congratulate Zenit for the win. I was pleased with how we played 17 minutes of the game, then affected by fatigue and poor substitutions – it did not let us stay in the game. Against a team like Zenit, the plan was to stay in the game as long as possible and pull out the ending. Unfortunately, it did not work out. We will try to do it in Perm.
Next
Game 2 takes place on May 13 in Perm.
