2018-19Regular SeasonRound 24
Olympiacos Piraeus 81
CSKA Moscow 97
March 01, 2019 CET: 20:30
Local time: 21:30 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

CSKA storms to big win in Piraeus

Playoff-bound CSKA Moscow made a huge second-half push to run away with an 81-97 road win against Olympiacos Piraeus on Friday and inch closer to securing home-court advantage in the upcoming playoffs. This victory was CSKA's sixth consecutively, which improved its second-place record to 19-5. Olympiacos lost its fifth straight game, dropping to 12-12 and eighth place. Neither team held a lead bigger than 5 points during the game's first 28 minutes, but CSKA went on a 7-26 run to blow the game wide open. CSKA had six players in double figures, with Cory Higgins scoring 18 points while Sergio Rodriguez collected 15 points and 12 assists. Zach LeDay paced the hosts with 21 points and Vassilis Spanoulis finished with 14 and 7 assists.

Spanoulis had a three-point play and a pair of assists for LeDay in the early going that gave Olympiacos a 13-11 lead. Rodriguez hit back-to-back triples for CSKA to go in front, but only briefly as Briante Weber went coast-to-coast and Georgios Printezis beat the buzzer from close range to give the hosts 23-21 after 10 minutes. CSKA got a boost from Nando De Colo in the second quarter before a three-pointer and a fastbreak basket from Will Clyburn made it 26-29. The teams went at each other, basket for basket, for a while then. Spanoulis and De Colo traded three-pointers, and after Kyle Hines had a big dunk for CSKA, Weber made a runner for the hosts. Spanoulis hit from deep and Vangelis Mantzaris copied him for Olympiacos to regain a lead, but Higgins knocked down his own triple at the last second to give CSKA a 50-51 lead at halftime. Olympiacos got in foul trouble at the start of the second as first Spanoulis and right after him Weber got to 4 personal fouls each. Othello Hunter did damage inside early in the third quarter before a three from Higgins opened up a 54-58 CSKA advantage. The hosts scored the next 6 points with a triple from Printezis giving Olympiacos a new 60-58 advantage, but that was the last time the Reds would lead. Kyle Hines scored twice inside and Higgins hit a jumper to help make it 64-72 after three quarters. Hines then scored 6 more points early in the fourth and Higgins added another jumper as the margin reached double digits. A triple from De Colo, followed by a dunk and a jumper from Will Clyburn, opened a 70-89 margin with 4:12 to go as CSKA paved the way to victory.

Movers and shakers

Cory Higgins led CSKA's scorers with 18 points, while Rodriguez orchestrated offense with 12 assists and only 1 turnover. Nando De Colo scored 16, Kyle Hines was everywhere with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 4 blocks. Will Clyburn had 14 points plus 8 rebounds, while Othello Hunter had 10 points plus 8 rebounds.

No steals

Olympiacos did not record a single steal in this game. The only other time that happened this century for the Reds was in a road loss at Unicaja Malaga in October 2009.

Stellar stat

Kyle Hines entered this game with 197 blocks for his EuroLeague career, then matched his career-high with 4 blocks tonight, becoming only the fourth player in competition history to reach the 200-block milestone.

Special milestone

By starting in this game, Vassilis Spanoulis made his 300th appearance in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, becoming just the fifth player to reach that milestone. The previous players to have achieved 300 games in the EuroLeague are Juan Carlos Navarro, Felipe Reyes, Paulius Jankunas and Nikos Zisis.

Next game

Next week in Round 25, Olympiacos goes on the road to play Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, paying its first visit to the Montenegrin capital this century. CSKA will try to keep its six-game win streak going at home against AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan, which is on a five-game winning streak of its own.

Sergio Rodriguez - CSKA Moscow - EB18
Friday, March 1, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; MAJKIC, MARIO
Attendance: 9530
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus23271417
CSKA Moscow21302125
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus23506481
CSKA Moscow21517297
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 WEBER, BRIANTE 21:10 6 3/5 0/1   1 3 4 2   1   1 4 2 5
3 WILLIAMS-GOSS, NIGEL 24:33 2 1/6     1   1 2   1     3   -4
6 TOUPANE, AXEL 9:15 4 1/1 0/1 2/2           1     1 1 2
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 20:56 14   3/5 5/9       7   4     4 4 11
10 TIMMA, JANIS 8:37 3   1/3                   1    
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 13:58 5 2/5   1/2 1 1 2     1 1 1 3 2 1
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 7:12 5 1/2   3/4               1   3 5
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 27:11 12 2/5 1/2 5/6   5 5     2   1 1 7 15
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 26:44 4   0/2 4/6 1 4 5 4     1     3 13
17 MANTZARIS, VANGELIS 8:45 3 0/1 1/2     1 1             1 3
31 BOGRIS, GEORGIOS 5:03 2 1/2     2 1 3     1   1     2
32 LEDAY, ZACH 26:36 21 6/9 1/1 6/6 4 5 9     1   2 2 6 28
Team           2   2               2
Totals 200:00 81 17/36 7/17 26/35 12 20 32 15 0 12 2 7 19 29 83
        47.2% 41.2% 74.3%
Head coach: BLATT, DAVID
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
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 21:41 16 4/8 2/5 2/2 1   1 4       1 3 6 16
3 BOLOMBOY, JOEL 11:03 4 1/2 0/1 2/2 2   2 1         2 1 4
5 PETERS, ALEC 5:47                         3   -3
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 0:08                              
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 26:52 15 3/4 3/7     1 1 12   1     2 3 23
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 17:09 3 0/1 1/4     1 1 1 1       5   -3
21 CLYBURN, WILL 23:51 14 5/10 1/3 1/2 2 6 8     1     2 1 12
22 HIGGINS, CORY 27:52 18 4/6 2/3 4/4 1 2 3 1         1 4 22
23 HACKETT, DANIEL 19:36   0/2 0/2     1 1 3 2     1 5 1 -3
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 7:50 2 1/2     1 2 3               4
42 HINES, KYLE 19:50 15 7/8   1/3 2 3 5 1   2 4   4 2 18
44 HUNTER, OTHELLO 18:21 10 5/7     6 2 8   1   3   2 1 19
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 97 30/50 9/25 10/13 16 18 34 23 4 4 7 2 29 19 110
        60% 36% 76.9%
Head coach: ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

Head Coaches

BLATT, DAVID
Olympiacos Piraeus
"Congratulations to CSKA. That's a very high-level team and they played a very high-level game. We came out with a good purpose in the first half, and played a pretty high-level game ourselves, but we did not maintain that, and that lack of consistency in the second half cost us the game. There were some positives for us. At times we showed improvement offensively. Defensively we were pretty consistent this year, but we were not able to handle the offensive power of CSKA. It is tough time, and it is tough times like this that you've just got to get inside of yourself, and as a team we've got to find our way out of this situation. Our goal is to make the playoffs. I know what we've got to do in order to do that, but without performing consistently that is going to be difficult, too. We go forward. We had problems offensively, really shot the ball poorly for an extended period of time, which today we improved, which is a good thing. We played the top-level teams in this period of time, we have not been successful, but perhaps that's part of the reason we struggled."
ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow

"I would like to congratulate my team for the win, but also the performance. I think it was obvious that we were a better team. We were dominant, especially in the second half when we changed a lot our approach and mindset on the defensive end. The fact that we kept Olympiacos low in the last two quarters, and the productivity was really different than in the first half when we allowed 50 points, it was a boost, the right trigger for us in order to turn around the game. Of course, the game is not only defense, you have to stay present on the offensive end. If you see the stats, we had only 4 turnovers, but of those 4 turnovers, 2 were three-second violations, one was an offensive charge and one was a back-court violation. Being over here and playing one of the physical teams that can switch a lot and force you on the bad hand, having only 4 turnovers proves the character we showed. We were unselfish, we were moving the ball. Sometimes we hit shots at the last second, but those were the best possible shots. We were trying to find the best possible solutions, and that is great. We won on the road against another great club and great opponent."

"We did a great job one-on-one, first of all, but in team defense, also. We defended well, rebounded better, and I think also when we need in the clutch moments, we did score. We did move the ball level. This is a big win against a team with high expectations that has the quality to support that."

Players

RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO
CSKA Moscow
"We played an excellent game, especially in the second half when they scored 31 points. I am happy for the team, we are working well. We know it is a long way and we have to keep forking for the next games. We had a different mentality in the second half, we were ready from the first minute, and we showed we can be a pretty tough team to play against. We have to keep improving things to get better."
HIGGINS, CORY
CSKA Moscow
"I missed the last game, but we knew tonight it would be a big fight, so I wanted to be ready for this game, because we knew it would be a big one for us. We obviously did not play very well defensively in the first half. They were outhustling us, especially in transition. But we changed that in the second half and brought a bigger fight."
No results found.