By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
After a loss on the road against Valencia on Day 22 of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, CSKA Moscow bounced back with a win over Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz at home 93-86 and can officially make plans for the postseason.
Coming into the final period, the two teams were tied at 71-71. Dimitris Itoudis’ players felt the pressure and the game could slip from their hands as they were trailing for most of the time.
Their answer was simple. They stepped up in their defense allowing the visitors to score their first points in the last quarter after four minutes of play. Thanks to a 7-0 run at the start of the fourth period they took the advantage.
Corry Higgins with a three-pointer pushed the Russian side to a double-digit lead (83-73) with five minutes left and everything was over. Simply Baskonia didn’t have enough energy to recover after that. The Russians won the last quarter by seven points (22-15).
Sergio Rodriguez and Will Clyburn led the winning side with “El Chacho” scoring 17 points and Clyburn adding 19.
The game started in a very different way. With Jayson Granger calling the shots and CSKA having a hard time hitting the open three-pointers (1/8) in the first quarter, the guests got the lead after the first 10 minutes. Baskonia was up by five (25-20) thanks to Granger who had a strong first period nailing three threes and scoring 11 points while being perfect (4/4) from the field.
CSKA found the answer with Rodriguez scoring nine points in the second quarter, but they still fall short after the first half (49-46) and the had to work until the end in order to get the win.
Granger finished the game with 26 points on a 9-13 shooting, but that couldn’t save the Spanish side. With this win, CSKA moved up to an 18-5 record and remains alone on top of the standings while Baskonia falls to a 10-13 record and moves further away from the playoffs.