2019-20Regular SeasonRound 14
December 18, 2019 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

CSKA turns on offense to surge past Zvezda

Defending champion CSKA Moscow used its home court to get back to winning ways by downing Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 100-74 on Wednesday night in the Russian capital. CSKA improved to 9-5, while Zvezda dropped to 5-9 on the season. The hosts led for the majority of the first half behind Mike James who scored 22 points before halftime, and after Zvezda went in front midway through the third quarter behind its 2-15 run, James and Joel Bolomboy fueled CSKA's offense and the hosts took control and cruised to victory. James finished with 29 points on 6-for-7 three-point shooting and Bolomboy scored a career-high 17 points in 16 minutes. Nikita Kurbanov added 11 points and Darrun Hilliard finished with 10 in a big victory. Dejan Davidovac scored 17 points for the visitors and Billy Baron had 14 points for Zvezda which was missing its top scorer Lorenzo Brown.

Ognjen Kuzmic had 6 close-range points for the visitors and Filip Covic a three-point play, but James scored 13 points, including 3 three-pointers to give CSKA an 18-13 lead early on. After Covic and Kurbanov traded three-pointers, a triple from Branko Lazic tied it at 21-21. But Janis Strelnieks scored the last 5 points of the first quarter before feeding Bolomboy for an alley-oop dunk to make it 29-23. Davidovac had a three and a dribble-and-drive to the rim to keep the visitors close, but Andrey Vorontsevich and Bolomboy fueled a CSKA run that opened a 41-30 lead. Davidovac hit another one from long range and James Gist added a baseline jumper to cut the gap to 43-38. However, James hit triples on three consecutive possessions to restore a double-digit advantage, before Mouhammad Faye's three made it 52-44 at halftime. Zvezda charged back to start the third quarter. Baron hit back-to-back triples before Borisa Simanic scored a layup and a three-pointer to give the visitors a 54-55 lead. CSKA was without a field goal for almost 5 minutes before James snapped a 2-14 run. The hosts regained control after Kurbanov hit a triple. Bolomboy quickly added one of his own, before James and Semen Antonov scored baskets-plus-fouls on consecutive possessions to give CSKA control at 76-62 going into the fourth quarter. The hosts continued their run in the fourth quarter, with Hilliard stringing together 7 points, including a transition triple that helped make it 91-65 as CSKA cruised to victory.

Big runs

CSKA finished the third quarter with a 15-4 run and opened the fourth quarter with a 15-3 charge. It turned a one-possession game into a 26-point margin.

The James show

Mike James hit 3 of 3 from long range in the opening 7 minutes in scoring 13 points. He then made a triple on three consecutive possessions in the final 2 minutes of the second quarter. James scored 22 of his 29 points in the first half and shot 6 for 7 from three-point range, with his only miss being a half-court heave at the end of the second quarter. He did not attempt another three-point shot in the second half.

Bolomboy's career-high

CSKA center Joel Bolomboy was near unstoppable as he played a key role in CSKA's victory. He scored a career-high 17 points by making 4 of 5 two-point shots and hitting his only three-point attempt. He also had 4 rebounds, all in just 16 minutes off the bench. This was the third time in the last five games that Bolomboy scored in double figures.

Triple digits

CSKA has scored 100 or more points at least four times in each of the past four seasons. This is the first time this season CSKA reached triple digits. CSKA also had 27 assists, its season-high, while committing just 6 turnovers, the team low this season.

Next up

Both teams return to action on Friday for Round 15. CSKA travels to visit league-leading Anadolu Efes Istanbul in a rematch of last May's championship game, while Zvezda will welcome Olympiacos Piraeus to the Serbian capital.

Mike James - CSKA Moscow - EB19
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: PEREZ, MIGUEL ANGEL; SHEMMESH, SEFFI; CLIVAZ, SEBASTIEN
Attendance: 6011
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow26262424
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade21231812
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow265276100
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade21446274
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 BOLOMBOY, JOEL 16:12 17 4/5 1/1 6/6 2 2 4 1     1   2 6 26
5 JAMES, MIKE 23:04 29 4/8 6/7 3/3   3 3 3         2 4 32
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 18:10 9 4/4   1/1 3 1 4   1 2     2 1 11
13 STRELNIEKS, JANIS 20:09 5 1/4 1/3 0/1   3 3 3 2 2     1 2 6
17 VOIGTMANN, JOHANNES 16:27   0/1 0/2   2 1 3 3 1   1   3   2
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 23:33 7 1/2 1/2 2/3 1 5 6 3     1 1 2 2 13
23 HACKETT, DANIEL 16:51   0/2 0/1     2 2 4 1       1 1 4
31 KOUFOS, KOSTA 6:58 6 3/5     1 3 4               8
32 HILLIARD, DARRUN 6:58 10 1/1 2/4 2/2       1             9
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 18:49 11   3/6 2/2   2 2 4 1 1       2 16
42 HINES, KYLE 16:50 4 2/3     1   1           2 1 3
84 BAKER, RON 15:59 2 1/3 0/1         5 1 1 1   3   2
Team                                
Totals 200:00 100 21/38 14/27 16/18 10 22 32 27 7 6 4 1 18 19 132
        55.3% 51.9% 88.9%
Head coach: ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 KUZMIC, OGNJEN 16:37 7 3/5   1/2   6 6 2       1 2 3 12
3 COVIC, FILIP 20:14 7 1/2 1/3 2/3   1 1 9   1   1 3 4 12
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 21:33 17 3/6 3/5 2/3   3 3     1   1 1 3 14
10 LAZIC, BRANKO 18:27 5 1/3 1/3         1 1       1 1 3
11 FAYE, MOUHAMMAD 15:31 3 0/1 1/1     1 1     1     1   1
12 BARON, BILLY 26:03 14 4/6 2/5   1 2 3 2   2   1 1 1 11
13 DOBRIC, OGNJEN 11:41 2 1/2   0/2                 1 1 -1
15 GIST, JAMES 18:01 8 3/6 0/1 2/2 1 3 4     2     3 2 5
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 22:02 2 0/1   2/2 2 2 4 4 2 1     1 1 10
28 SIMANIC, BORISA 19:19 7 2/2 1/2     1 1     1 1   2 1 6
32 JOVANOVIC, NIKOLA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
50 OJO, MICHAEL 10:32 2 0/1   2/2 2 2 4 1   1     3 1 3
Team           2   2               2
Totals 200:00 74 18/35 9/20 11/16 8 21 29 19 3 10 1 4 19 18 78
        51.4% 45% 68.8%
Head coach: SAKOTA, DRAGAN

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"I like to congratulate my team for the win. Zvezda is a team that always tries and we expected them to come here and fight. We had good moments and bad moments, for sure, but that is basketball, basketball is a game of runs. I emphasized, when they took the lead 54-55 in the third quarter, we had a 20-6 run. We played serious defense and broke the game to a serious margin. The final margin of 26 points is not a real picture of the way Zvezda fought today. We now have two trips, one to Istanbul and another one to Tallinn. Mike James had a great shooting night, but I decided not to give him that much playing time where he could have scored more and make more plays because we have to think about the future."

Players

JAMES, MIKE
CSKA Moscow
"The key was how we picked it up in the second half on defense. It led to our offense, it led us running. It helped us out in total. First half we did not assert ourselves on defense and let them do whatever they want. The first half was not the best as a team and the second half was really good. We obviously learned from our mistakes at halftime and picked it up."
BOLOMBOY, JOEL
CSKA Moscow
"We knew that we had to come in and be aggressive. After the first half, we were not pleased with that performance. Coach talked to us and we made some adjustments and they showed in the second half. We picked up our tempo, played even better defense and increased the lead. We were not up on our pick-and-roll defense at the start of the third quarter, especially our hedges. We were letting their guards get over the screen and create with easy passes and finishing at the rim. Also, we were giving them a lot of and-one baskets."
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