By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Mike James scored 21 points and Johannes Voigtmann notched a double-double of 15 points and 14 rebounds as CSKA Moscow beat Khimki Moscow 78 – 69 on the road to win its fifth consecutive game and improve its EuroLeague regular-season record to 16 – 6.
This was the sixth loss in seven games for Khimki that dropped to 9 – 13 and even further from the spots that lead to the playoffs. Alexey Shved finished with 27 points, six assists but also eight turnovers. He scored 20 of his points in the fourth period and after CSKA had taken a 21-point lead.
CSKA was up 38 – 59 near the end of the third period following free throws by Semen Antonov. Khimki, that had scored just six points in the third quarter, had 18 five minutes into the final period but it was too late for them to catch up.
With the score 61 – 72, James and Kyle Hines (13 points, six rebounds) combined for a 0-5 run that gave CSKA a 17-point advantage with 2:22 left to play. Khimki just managed to cut its deficit to single digits in the end.
Janis Timma (12 points) was the only Khimki player in double figures apart from Shved.
Cuban forward Howard Sant-Roos added 12 points for the winning side and as he said after the game: “I am just trying to help my team whatever way it is possible. I have to be a stopper out there, and if it is what I have to go to take wins, that is what I am going to do.”
A changed mindset
For CSKA coach Dimitris Itoudis, his team was playing great for three quarters, but needs to add a fourth: “I think we changed our mindset. Recently, we had some pictures in our minds, about the rivalry we have with Khimki, and we played a different game. At least for three quarters, I think we were a very solid team. With all due respect, in the end, Shved has this talent to go and make points but we were giving him too much space and we lost that quarter, but I think that this +21 after three quarters was almost the perfect game. Besides the congratulations, I would like to say that we have a lot of work. Three good quarters and we want to add this fourth quarter. In these games, the hustle points and hustle, in general, makes the difference. And I think we did that today, not only on rebounds, also in nobody’s balls and in situations when it looked like we may lose the ball, we chased the ball, took it back, rebounding… It was not only the rebounds but going out of bounds and taking it back, scoring points or drawing fouls. We were good and, especially for three quarters, we were on the level we want to be in this EuroLeague marathon.”
Photo credit: EuroLeague