2017-18Regular SeasonRound 21
February 01, 2018 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

CSKA's early KO punch holds off Madrid

An early and decisive takeover run lifted CSKA Moscow to game-long leads en route to defeating Real Madrid 93-87 to open Round 21 on Thursday. Top-of-the-table CSKA improved to 17-4 while Madrid fell to 13-8, in danger of vacating the top four spots in the standings. A 24-3 run in the game's first 7 minutes led CSKA to a 33-11 advantage after one quarter. Madrid whittled that difference down to its low at the finish, but could not complete the comeback and remains winless against CSKA in Moscow in five tries since 2008. Sergio Rodriguez paced the winners with 18 points and 5 assists against his old team. Cory Higgins added 16 points, Will Clyburn and Othello Hunter 11 each, Nando De Colo and Nikita Kurbanov 10 more. Luka Doncic led all scorers with 21 points for Madrid, which saw All-EuroLeague forward Anthony Randolph return after two months injured. Jaycee Carroll added 16 points, Trey Thompkins 13 and Facundo Campazzo 10 for the visitors.

Campazzo struck from the arc first, but Kurbanov matched him, Clyburn dunked alone and Rodriguez blasted a triple to force a Madrid timeout. Rodriguez's steal and two-pointer suddenly made it 12-2. Clyburn rang up a triple before Fernandez ended CSKA's 15-0 run with a lane jumper. Kyle Hines put in back-to-back baskets and another triple by Rodriguez made it a mind-blowing 24-5, all without Nando De Colo in the game yet. Jeffery Taylor and Walter Tavares traded shots with Hines and Higgins. De Colo's long two was matched by Tavares much closer before Semen Antonov ended a spectacular first quarter from deep, giving CSKA a 33-11 lead. CSKA cooled down and Doncic hit the first basket of the second quarter after 2 minutes. Higgins restarted CSKA's offense, but Fabien Causeur hit a corner triple and Doncic a post-up shot to make it 35-18. Clyburn answered for CSKA, followed by Higgins and Rodriguez to make it 41-20. Hunter took over next with back-to-back baskets, one with an added free throw, and then a huge alley-oop dunk on an assist by Rodriguez at 50-26. Higgins and De Colo scored as Carroll put in 7 points including a triple to end the half 54-31.

Rodriguez drained his third three-pointer without a miss to open the second half. Doncic scored the next 5 points and Randolph downed his first basket in 2018 to make it 57-38. Rodriguez and Carroll traded jumpers before a big block by Tavares sent Doncic for a fastbreak layup at 59-42. Doncic and Kurbanov hit triples, as did Campazzo and Rodriguez. But Campazzo came back with another, and was fouled for a four-point play that lowered the difference to 66-52. Higgins made the sixth consecutive triple between the teams before Doncic made a free throw and assisted Randolph for a dunk that prompted a CSKA timeout at 69-55. Higgins responded with a three-point play and De Colo scored inside amid a flurry of free throws and a dunk by Randolph that left a 78-60 score after 30 minutes. Thompkins, Rudy Fernandez and Felipe Reyes quickly cut the difference to 78-66 to begin the fourth quarter. When Thompkins scored again and Carroll made it an 8-0 run with a second-chance jumper, Madrid was within 78-70. CSKA had been scoreless for nearly 5 minutes when Antonov made free throws and then Vitaly Fridzon drilled his first shot from deep to make it 83-70. Madrid needed a timeout now, and from it Doncic dunked and his missed free throw became a Carroll three-pointer at 83-75 with still 4 minutes to play. Fridzon and Tavares hit free throws, then Rodriguez connected with Clyburn for a reverse. Higgins answered a basket by Thompkins, but the latter drilled a corner triple at 91-83 with less than 2 minutes left. That, however, was Madrid's last gasp as CSKA's game-long cushion held up for its 17th victory.

Sergio Rodriguez - CSKA Moscow - EB17
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Euroleague.net
Referees: PUKL,SASA; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; PATERNICO, CARMELO
Attendance: 12322
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow33212415
Real Madrid11202927
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow33547893
Real Madrid11316087
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 DE COLO, NANDO 26:51 10 3/7 0/2 4/4       5   3   1 2 5 8
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 6:49 5   1/1 2/2                 1 1 5
9 WESTERMANN, LEO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 20:47 5 0/2 1/2 2/2 1   1 1     1   2 2 5
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 25:20 18 3/4 4/7     1 1 5 1 3   1 4   13
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 7:50   0/1 0/1     1 1 1              
21 CLYBURN, WILL 31:09 11 3/7 1/4 2/2   10 10 1   2     3 2 12
22 HIGGINS, CORY 25:41 16 6/10 1/2 1/1   2 2 3 1 2     3 4 16
31 KHRYAPA, VICTOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 17:21 10   2/3 4/4 1 3 4     1     3 2 11
42 HINES, KYLE 16:08 7 3/5   1/2 2 1 3   1     1 3 1 5
44 HUNTER, OTHELLO 22:04 11 3/5   5/6 2 2 4 1 2       4 4 15
Team           2 3 5               5
Totals 200:00 93 21/41 10/22 21/23 8 23 31 17 5 11 1 3 25 21 95
        51.2% 45.5% 91.3%
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
Real Madrid
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 CAUSEUR, FABIEN 8:03 3   1/1             1     1 1 2
3 RANDOLPH, ANTHONY 12:47 6 3/4 0/2             1     2 1 1
5 FERNANDEZ, RUDY 19:48 4 2/2 0/3   3 4 7 3   1 1   2 2 11
7 DONCIC, LUKA 30:19 21 5/10 2/5 5/9   5 5 5 3 4     2 7 23
8 MACIULIS, JONAS 8:28 2 1/1                     1   1
9 REYES, FELIPE 16:21 4 1/1   2/2 1 2 3   2       2 5 12
11 CAMPAZZO, FACUNDO 22:05 10 0/3 3/5 1/1   2 2 4   2     3 3 9
16 YUSTA, SANTI 3:00                   1     1   -2
20 CARROLL, JAYCEE 23:37 16 3/4 2/3 4/4 1   1 1         1 2 17
22 TAVARES, WALTER 23:16 6 2/5   2/4 4 5 9   1 2 2   2 3 12
33 THOMPKINS, TREY 17:26 13 4/8 1/4 2/2 1 3 4   1     1 4 1 7
44 TAYLOR, JEFFERY 14:50 2 1/5     2 3 5 1             4
Team                                
Totals 200:00 87 22/43 9/23 16/22 12 24 36 14 7 12 3 1 21 25 97
        51.2% 39.1% 72.7%
Head coach: LASO, PABLO

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"Obviously, that was not a walk in the park. It will never be a walk in the park in the EuroLeague. Of course, we had a great start, and this is what we were working on all week. We wanted to play at a high tempo. Right now we are not ready to play at a high tempo for 40 minutes. We also had a great opponent in front of us. They slowed us down, they hit some big shots that we didn't hit in the second half with the same frequency we had in the first and second quarters. They slowed us down not in the open court but in the half court. But overall I have to say congratulations to my team. It's another good streak. We defended our home, we won another game in the EuroLeague, and that's important. Congratulations to them and to these 13,000 fans. It's great to have such an atmosphere here, so we thank them very much."
LASO, PABLO
Real Madrid
"I congratulate CSKA for the victory. I think the game was very disappointing for us. I think our first quarter was...unacceptable, let's say. We just weren't there. So, they got a 20-point advantage, and then we were able to compete for three quarters. But you can't play against a team like CSKA for 30 minutes; it's got to be 40 if you want to be in the game. I'm disappointed for that first quarter, we weren't the team we want to be, and they got too much of a difference. We tried to fight back, we did some good things, but we were too far behind in the score. Congratulations to CSKA for the victory. I hope this game will help us to learn for the future."

Players

DE COLO, NANDO
CSKA Moscow
"It's a Final Four team and we know it's never easy to win by 20 in the first quarter. After that it was just a tie game and we tried to control it without thinking of the score, but it wasn't easy."
HIGGINS, CORY
CSKA Moscow
"We were waiting to play them again, because we didn't play very well in Madrid, so we had this game circled on our calendar. I think that showed in the way we opened the game. It's hard to play a whole perfect game, but I think our attitude was great the whole game. We had the right mindset, especially defensively, so I think that's why we ultimately we came away with the win."
RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO
CSKA Moscow
"We came ready for the game. We've been working on how we had to play against Real Madrid the whole week, and we were ready. You know, it's a big win for us. We're still first with a margin of a few victories, so we're happy for the win and to keep going. I played so many games with those guys, but at the same time, I'm very happy and doing things to help my team win. In the end, we are doing a helluva job every day, working very hard to get to the end of the season in the best conditions."
DONCIC, LUKA
Real Madrid
"I think we played a good second half, but it didn't help much because we played the first very badly, particularly the first quarter. It was a disaster, an embarrassment. We're not like that. We didn't respect ourselves. The first half we gave them as a gift. We didn't give anything of ourselves. The lesson is we can't start games like that. We have to keep working."
TAVARES, WALTER
Real Madrid
"We didn't try. You saw how we played as a team. At the start, I don't know what happened. We weren't ready to play and we paid the bill for the first quarter the rest of the time."
No results found.