By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With the playoffs on the line and CSKA Moscow playing without banned Mike James and injured Nikola Milutinov and Joel Bolomboy, Zenit had a good chance for a home win. That was not the case, however.
After a big fight from wire to wire, CSKA got the 86-74 road win for a solid 21-10 record, while Zenit dropped to 17-14 and might end up losing the playoffs in the 11th hour.
Johannes Voigtmann with 21 points led a balanced effort for the winning side, Daniel Hackett added 13, and Toko Shengelia also had 14.
As the German big man of CSKA said: “Offensively, it was a pretty good performance. Everybody is a little tired now and we have to find this extra energy for the playoffs now. That is going to determine who is going to be at the top.”
Billy Baron with 24 points tried his best for Zenit, but it was not enough.
The hosts trailed by four (61-57) near the end of the third period, however, CSKA led even by 13 (72-59) after an 11-2 run at the start of the last quarter to control the game when it mattered the most.
CSKA Moscow coach Dimitris Itoudis added: “I would like, obviously, to congratulate my team for the win, but also for the performance and the attitude towards the principals, the basic rules that we have as a team. Overall, the dedication that we showed to the game plan, the huge willingness they showed to sacrifice and help each other, to play against a great opponent that hurt us a lot with their two-pointers, 74%. We tried to solve that issue and couldn’t solve it. But the fact that we forced some key players to get out of their comfort zone, it was a win for us”.