By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Although many key players of the Russian team were injured and had to watch the game from the sidelines, CSKA Moscow dominated FC Barcelona Lassa to win 93-82. Τhe “army team” declared marshal law during the second and the third period, locked the win with ease and despite missing Nando De Colo and Joel Freeland this were easy.
From the get go Dmitry Kulagin and Cory Higgins – who finished the game as the top scorer of the winners with 20 points – did an excellent job on helping their team’s offense have an ongoing steady flow and coach Itoudis was happy to see that the systems he drew on his board, were executed to an almost perfection. Although Barcelona managed to answer back by the hands of its captain, Juan Carlos Navarro, who moved and scored like he had entered a time machine, the 17 points received by CSKA in 5 minutes were too much for coach Pascual to handle. His timeout didn’t change many things on the defensive end for his team, yet Barcelona was effective enough to not only keep up with the Russian’s brilliant rhythm, but cut the finishing line of the period first with Sasa Vezenkov also putting his piece from, where else but the long range, for the 28 – 29.
Milos Teodosic from one side, and Sasa Vezenkov from the other, took it from where their teams left it in the previous quarter but generally, the insane scoring tempo of the first 10 minutes was tuned down a bit, despite Milos being his usual…”naughty” self. Barcelona was the first team to find more solutions inside the paint thanks to an agile squad benefited by the simultaneous presence of Samuels and Vezenkov that rather confused CSKA’s defense. Yet once the hosts managed to stop their opponents from scoring, they began striking equally swiftly, and effectively, to get once again a lead of 8, 46 – 38. That was shortlived, however, since Barcelona found enough transition game to anger coach Itoudis and make him use some words that the director didn’t have time to “beep”, during the timeout. But hey “whatever motivates you, it’s good” some say. And his players returned to the game strong, making 6-0 run with Kyle Hines overpowering the Catalans on both ends of court. Through its improved defense, CSKA remained steadily ahead of Barcelona and the two teams went to the locker rooms with the score being 52-44.
Strangely enough, Ante Tomic was without any points in the first half, so he decided to correct that, opening the third quarter with a basket of his own. While he started providing huge helps to the Catalan’s game, as he usually does, CSKA players lacked the good choices that positively influenced their game throughout the first 20 minutes, until Dmitry Kulagin once more justified his coach’s trust on him, by scoring the Russians’ first points in the quarter, after about 4 minutes. Things became easier for the hosts, once they put a small roadblock on Barcelona’s scoring path, since they became proportionally productive on the other side of the court. With Teodosic constantly enhancing his teammates’ game, the hosts got a double digit lead. And if Barca seem disoriented once, Navarro’s ejection after a second technical foul was called on him, furtherly frustrated everyone in the Catalans’ camp.
CSKA had assumed complete control of the match stepping into the fourth period with the score being 76 – 59 and it was curious how Barcelona would react with captain Navarro being forced to watch the rest of the game from the locker rooms. A 19 point lead by the Russians was countered with a 0-5 run by the guests, which was enough to make make coach Itoudis summon his players at the bench and remind them that the game was far from over. Alex Abrines assumed leadership on court by banging three shots from downtown that made it a 10 point game. With the score 80 – 70, and more than 5 minutes to go, he didn’t make it 4/4 and that was a turning point in the game. Two consecutive cooperations between Teodosic and Kurbanov, helped the latter scored twice for the 84 – 70 and then CSKA made Barcelona pay for every time the guests decided to double team specific players from the opposing side, with daggers from behind the arc. It was game over in favor of CSKA and all that remained to be seen was the final score.