By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow used an 80-78 victory over Anadolu Efes in Istanbul to improve to a 21-6 record in the EuroLeague standings of Round 27.
It was a tough and balanced battle that was settled all the way down in the final seconds, as Cory Higgins tipped the ball with 1.9 seconds remaining in the game. When Efes got its last possession, Will Clyburn was there to make sure Rodrigue Beaubois wouldn’t keep it and practically turned the final result into CSKA’s favor.
Needless to say that Higgins played a huge part in this win for the Russian side, leading the team with 19 points and five assists over 29 minutes on the court.
Dimitris Itoudis commented on how his team used the opportunities Efes gave on a bad scoring day for CSKA as he admitted at the post-game press conference: “Maybe [Nando De Colo] had only scored a point, but at that time he had 6 assists to open up the game, attacking the paint and creating good opportunities for his teammates. We have good shooters, I can count the names of all of them, we want to use them all but today we focus on using the opportunities that our opponent gave us”.
CSKA managed to overshadow Bryant Dunston’s season-high performance in the competition with 19 points, eight boards, and two assists.
Efes will have to wait for other results, as well as aim for three wins in the three remaining games of the regular season in order to stay in homecourt advantage sight.
“CSKA had the final attack, we made a big mistake in one-to-one defense and lost the game. However, we showed that today we are a good team and we will fight to win the EuroLeague”, commented Ergin Ataman after the game.
Photo credit: CSKA Moscow