By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow showed why they are on another level compared to other teams in the Euroleague regular season. Itoudis’ team defeated Khimki Moscow Region 73 – 90, two days after securing the first place finish in Wednesday’s win against Olympiacos Peireus.
CSKA‘s offense was simply incredible, especially in the first half where the game was decided. The visitors scored 53 points in the first twenty minutes but were also highly efficient from the floor, shooting 57% from the field.
Khimki was battling for the first nine minutes of the contest (17-20), but when De Colo entered the game, everything changed. With a 0-14 run at the end of the first, start of the second period, CSKA built a 17-point lead (17-34). In just seven minutes on the court, CSKA’s super-star had 11 points (2/2 2p.) (2/3 3p.).
The hosts tried to come back in the second half, cutting the lead to eight (48-56) but eventually fell short as Rodriguez, Kurbanov and De Colo had other ideas in the final six minutes of the contest (64-79).
For Itoudis’ team, five players finished the game in double-digits. Nando De Colo (20 p.), Othello Hunter (16p. 7r.), and Sergi Rodriguez (12 p. 8 a.) affected the game the most.
For the losing side, Alexey Shved finished with a team-high 20 points and eight assists.
*CSKA has now improved to 23-5 on the year, while Khimki slipped to 16-12. Bartzokas’ team is one game back from Panathinaikos (defeated Maccabi) and Real Madrid (defeated Zalgiris). The top-4 chances are trimmed.
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