Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes was defeated by Russia's Zenit St. Petersburg 85-78 in Thursday's THY EuroLeague Basketball Round 21 game.
Zenit led the entire game but needed to withstand a big rally from the Istanbul side at the Sibur Arena, completing a sweep in its head-to-head regular season series.
With seven of its players hitting double figures, Zenit picked up its fifth win in six games, taking their season record to 13-6. Efes, on the other hand, dropped to 11-10.
Zenit took control early and led by double digits in the first quarter, before knocking down six triples in the second to open a 23-point lead that was 53-31 at halftime.
Efes, however, fought back in the third quarter with Vasilije Micic, getting within 59-53 to make it a game.
The visitors never got closer than five points for the rest of the game, however, as Billy Baron and Kevin Pangos hit important 3-pointers to keep Efes at bay.
For the Russian side, Will Thomas scored 14 points and Arturas Gudaitis had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. Pangos and Austin Hollins netted 13 points each, Andrey Zubkov scored 12, while Mateusz Ponitka and Baron had 10 each.
For Efes, Micic had 23 points, five rebounds and four assists, while Shane Larkin scored 20. Bryant Dunston added 10 points plus nine rebounds, while Chris Singleton scored 10.
