By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Mateusz Ponitka posted a 19-point performance along with seven boards to pace Zenit St. Petersburg to an 82-70 victory in overtime against Zalgiris Kaunas on the road in Round 5 of EuroLeague.
Despite a tight contest between the two teams for four quarters, in the extra five-minute period Zenit totally stunned their hosts and with a partial 20-8 score marched to the win.
Apart from Ponitka, plenty of Joan Plaza’s players finished the game in double digits, including Gustavo Ayon (11 points, five rebounds, five assists) and Colton Iverson (10 points, six rebounds).
On the other end of the court, Zach LeDay finished the game with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Zenit grabbed its second victory of the season, once again on the road, while Zalgiris ended its winning streak and moves to a 2-3 record.
“All the merit goes to players”
“It’s the players [who won it in overtime]. There are no tactical solutions. They have pride and they have character and they will win the games, especially if they deserve it. They played great in overtime, but even the rest of the time they played pretty well. The competitiveness is one of the things that we are not consistent at all. But with this competitiveness, sometimes you are going to lose, but most of the time you are going to win. All the merit goes to the players. I think that in the end we had the same energy as them but we really believed that we were capable and we talked about it in a timeout before the last period about whether we deserved it or not. If you deserve it, go for the game. You have to go for it until the end. You can lose or you can win. This is our profile”, commented Joan Plaza after the game, in his return to Kaunas for the third time on the opposing end.
Photo credit: EuroLeague