Barça endured a tough evening in St. Petersburg, losing at the Sibur Arena 74-61 to Zenit and being unable to close the tie. The series will now have a decisive game at the Palau Blaugrana to decide who will advance to the Final Four of the Euroleague, to be played on Tuesday, May 4 at 9pm.
Zenit make the most of scoring nadir
Early on, Sarunas Jasikevicius' men experienced the difficulty of the fixture. Amidst a deafening atmosphere from the stands, they found themselves behind 25-13 in the opening quarter. Only Corey Higgins, with six points, was able to offer up a resistence.
In the second quarter, the Barcelona players upped their defensive performance but could not take advantage of low scoring numbers for Zenit, as they could only collect a further 13 points to make it 36-26 at halftime.
Points still lacking in second half
In the second half, the score continued to reflect the difficulties Barça faced. A 5-0 partial opened the third quarter and the team turned to Nick Calathes for the reaction. However, it was an almost insurmountable advantage of 58-38 that meant the fourth quarter required a massive turnaround.
That was not to be, and not even Calathes' points could deny Zenit Saint Petersburg a 74-61 victory.
A place in the Euroleague Final Four is at stake on Tuesday, when Barça will try to exact revenge at the Palau Blaugrana.
Match Stats
Zenit Saint Petersburg, 74
Barça, 61
Zenit: Pangos (22), Fridzon (-), Hollins (11), Will Thomas (4) i Tarik Black (11) -starting five- Rivers (7), Baron (7), Khvostov (-), Zubkov (-), Poythress (12), Zakharov (-) and Trushkin (-)
Barça: Calathes (19), Higgins (13), Abrines (-), Mirotic (7) i Davies (1) -starting five- Bolmaro (4), Hanga (2), Smits (6), Kuric (8), Gasol (-), Sergi Martínez (-) and Oriola (1)
Partials: 25-13 / 11-13 // 22-12
Referees: Sasa Pukl, Fernando Rocha and Mehdi Difallah
