By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow grabbed its first win of the season in EuroLeague while keeping the reigning champions without a victory by defeating Anadolu Efes 100-96 on the road.
A big dunk (97-93) and two free throws (100-96) by Toko Shengelia saved the day for the “Army Team” with the Georgian forward finishing the game with 23 points and Iffe Lundberg adding 16 and also a crucial free throw in the closing seconds.
“It was a thriller game. You have to give credit to Efes; they never gave up. But neither did we,” said Shengelia, “Even though they came back to within a couple of points, we kept our cool and followed the game plan that Coach gave us, and executed. We moved the ball. Everyone contributed defensively and offensively. Johannes [Voigtmann] did an amazing job on the boards, Iffe [Lundberg], Will [Clyburn], everybody. On the defensive end, things that don’t show up in the statistics, we did it. We fought for the 50-50 balls and I think that at the end of the day, that’s what made the difference.”
Will Clyburn scored 18 points and Johannes Voigtmann had 17 for the winning side.
“For us, it’s a good way to finally get the first win. And against a reigning champion, it’s always a good win, especially on the road,” pointed out Voigtmann, “This team is very talented and it’s very tough to stop them. We struggled a little bit, especially at the end, to stop them. But we somehow found the way to be better on offense than we were in Milan. I think that was it. It was tight at the end. We gave up this big lead. We’re just happy to be back winning.”
Thanks to an amazing crescendo by Vasilje Micic who had 32 points on seven made threes and a big three by Adrien Moerman, Efes cut the lead of CSKA to two points (95-93) with 52 seconds left, completing an 11-1 run almost in one minute.
CSKA offense was spectacular in the first 30 minutes as Dimitris Itoudis’ players produced 79 points by the end of the third period against their opponents’ 68.
“It was a very interesting game, another one between Efes and CSKA,” stressed the Greek head coach, “We’re getting used to that: high score, thriller, you know. I think that we were the better team today, so congratulations to my players. I think we played to the level of physicality that is necessary to play such a game on the road against a defending champion.”
“We came over here short-handed, but the guys kept believing. We got to the third quarter and built such a confident difference, let’s say, double-digit margins all the time. And after that, their stars put a little bit of pressure on us, we made some wrong decisions. Probably, we were a little bit tired because of the small rotation; maybe that’s on me. But I think that overall, we were the better team. We handled the situation well and we managed to accomplish a good win and prove to us that we can really play ball,” he added.
Shane Larkin had 12 points and Moerman scored 14 for the hosts who dropped to 0-2, while CSKA has a 1-1 record.
“Defensively, we played a terrible game. To give up 100 points on our own court, it’s very difficult to win. Especially in the first half, we gave them 8 offensive rebounds and 15 points after those rebounds,” stated the Turkish side’s head coach Ergin Ataman, “So I think that today, we didn’t answer them physically, and our shooters, except Micic, missed a lot of shots. Shane was 0 for 7 on three-point shots. Anyway, in the last quarter, we tried to come back, but it was not enough. Also, we gave them 37 free throws. I don’t know; I think that our defense was not good. We made too many fouls; 37 free throws in that kind of game is too much. So, it was not a good game for us.”