By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
A very physical battle between two teams desperate to pick up wins ended in CSKA Moscow’s favor as they escaped from Vitoria-Gasteiz with an 80-74 victory over Baskonia in Round 11 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
After kickstarting the game 23-8 against the home team, CSKA outlasted the second-quarter comeback to retain a lead and never looked back in the game. Tornike Shengelia gave CSKA an 11-point advantage with under two minutes remaining in the third period and managed to help his team seize control for a 54-41 lead after 30 minutes.
Shengelia kept pouring in the fourth and finished the game with 15 points and 4 rebounds. Johannes Voigtmann and Will Clyburn picked up 16 points apiece while Iffe Lundberg joined the list of top scorers with 11 points.
“We were in control of the game the whole game. I think we opened the game great, giving up only 8 points to Baskonia”, commented Dimitris Itoudis post-game. “We showed what we wanted to do tonight, with great motivation and concentration for my players, so congratulations to each and everyone. It is not easy: nobody wanted to go without grabbing a win in his journey to Spain. We showed great character. Again, we are in the process of bringing back people that are coming off injuries, and everybody is helping and giving their maximum, including those that are not getting minutes”
Jayson Granger gave the visiting side a hard time, as he fired back-to-back threes to reduce the deficit to 72-65 with four minutes remaining as he moved up to 12 points in the game. Even though Baskonia saw resilient efforts by Wade Baldwin (18 points) and Steven Enoch (14 points, 10 rebounds), they couldn’t contain CSKA down the final stretch.
CSKA bounced back from a defeat against FC Barcelona earlier in the week to improve to a 6-5 record, while Baskonia ends the double game-week 1-1 and on a 4-7 record in the EuroLeague standings.
Photo: CSKA Moscow / Twitter