By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow sent quite the message to all other EuroLeague teams which thought that the Russian powerhouse would become vulnerable without the Euro “splash bros” Milos Teodosic and Nando De Colo.
The defending champs didn’t only beat Olimpia Milano on the road but cruised to a 64 – 79 victory thanks to a supreme second half and the guidance brought by the dynamic duo of Aaron Jackson and Dmitry Kulagin who combined for 28 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.
Kulagin dropped a 14 points EuroLeague career-high, as many as Jackson who also dished out 5 assists and stole the ball three times. They were both particularly unstoppable in the third quarter when they paced their team to scoring 30 points while receiving only 16 to enter the fourth quarter from a 66 – 54 pole position.
Milano‘s lackluster (if not nonexistant) defensive helps and failure to put a stop in their opponents blazing action threw the efforts that coach Repesa’s players had done during the first half in the garbage can. The hosts had managed to lead 38 – 36 at halftime, thanks to Jamel McLean (10 points, 6 rebounds) and Ricky Hickman (10 points, all in the first half, plus 4 rebounds) but came back from their locker rooms a different team.
Things got even worse for the “Red Shoes” in the mid of the final period when CSKA got a 20-point lead, 56 – 76 after a 1-10 partial score. The only thing that Milano managed to do in the last stretch was simply avert a possible blowout.
Apart from Kulagin and Jackson, Cory Higgins also scored in double-digit numbers for the winning side with 11 points while also grabbing 5 rebounds. Miroslav Raduljica was the top scorer of Olimpia Milano with 11 points.