2019-20Regular SeasonRound 25
February 21, 2020 CET: 19:00
Local time: 19:00 STARK ARENA

CSKA stops host Zvezda, 81-86

Defending champions CSKA Moscow ended a two-game losing streak by pulling away to beat host Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 81-86 in what had been a one-point game early in the final quarter. CSKA stayed in fourth place with a 17-8 record, while Zvezda fell to 10-15, but still one victory from the last playoff spot. Mike James scored 24 of his 29 points after halftime to lead the winners. Daniel Hackett followed with 19 points and Darrun Hilliard added 12 for CSKA. Billy Baron led Zvezda with 15 points. Kevin Punter added 12 points, Vladimir Stimac and James Gist 11, and Lorenzo Brown 10 for the hosts. Zvezda had led 37-36 on Baron's halftime buzzer-beater, but CSKA came out after the break with a 7-18 run to take control. Zvezda drew within 62-63 early in the fourth quarter, but another CSKA run of 4-15 put the game away.

Kyle Hines scored twice inside and assisted Nikita Kurbanov as CSKA went ahead 5-6 early, but Brown's transition layup put Zvezda in front after 5 minutes. Marko Jagodic-Kuridza, Stimac and Brown upped the difference to 13-9 but Hilliard answered from deep and James hit a free throw to tie. Brown's free throws gave Zvezda a 17-16 advantage after 10 minutes. Dejan Davidovac and Stratos Perperoglou, from deep, made it 22-20 early in the second quarter, but Hackett scored 6 points in an 0-8 CSKA run to a 22-28 lead. Punter and Gist joined Zvezda's scorers before Michael Ojo's hook shot forged another tie, 30-30. Brown's triple made it 34-32 before a first field goal by James and free throws by Nikita Kurbanov sent CSKA ahead. Baron had the last word of the half from downtown, beating the buzzer to seize a 37-36 lead for Zvezda. After the break, Hackett and James broke CSKA's long three-point drought to send the visitors in front 39-44. Baron pulled Zvezda within 45-48, but Hilliard's 5 points in a row boosted CSKA to a 45-53 margin. James kept it going by feeding Joel Bolomboy for a dunk and downing a deep second-chance triple for a 53-60 CSKA lead after three quarters. Punter drove and Gist converted a three-point play to open the fourth quarter. Punter bettered 3 free throws by James with a four-point play to make it 62-63. A triple by Hackett, fastbreak layup by Johannes Voigtmann and another second-chance triple by James let CSKA surge again to the game's first double-digit lead, 66-78, with under 5 minutes left. Davidovac and Baron cut the difference to 71-78, but CSKA continued piling up offensive rebounds and James kept hitting free throws into the final minute to make sure the victory went back to Moscow.

Tale of two halves for James

With James struggling to make 1 field goal on 7 attempts and 3 of 6 free throws in the first half, CSKA was behind. He wasn't much more accurate from the field after that, finishing 3-for-8 on two-pointers and 3-for-11 from downtown, but his 11-for-12 accuracy at the line in the second half proved a difference maker. Those were the most free throw attempts of the season in the EuroLeague, and his 14 foul shots made tied for the second-most.

Hines goes up the charts

With 3 two-point shots made against Zvezda, CSKA center Kyle Hines moved into fifth place all-time, with 950 total, passing Mike Batiste, who had made 949 in his 12-season EuroLeague career. His third basket of the first quarter put Hines past Batiste. Ahead of Hines now are only active players: Ante Tomic (1,129), Georgios Printezis (1,065), Felipe Reyes (965) and Paulius Jankunas (960).

Gist moves up, too

Zvezda veteran James Gist pulled 2 offensive rebounds to move in the top 10 all-time in that category, with 385. He is tied with Mirsad Turkcan for the 10th spot, with two active players, Othello Hunter and Bryant Dunston, tied for eighth place with 403 each.

Stellar stats

CSKA's biggest statistical advantage en route to victory was on the boards, where the visitors out-rebounded Zvezda 38-27, including a 13-7 advantage on the offensive glass. Kyle Hines led CSKA with 5 offensive boards, 3 of which came in the last 4 minutes, leading to 5 points and preventing any Zvezda comeback.

Next up

In Round 26, CSKA hosts a superpower matchup with FC Barcelona on Thursday, the same night that Zvezda visits KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in the the first of its six road games in the last nine rounds.

Mike James - CSKA Moscow - EB19
Friday, February 21, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: PEREZ, EMILIO; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB; AMBROSOV, MYKOLA
Attendance: 13457
By Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade17201628
CSKA Moscow16202426
End of Quarter1234
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade17375381
CSKA Moscow16366086
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 PUNTER, KEVIN 21:37 12 2/5 1/3 5/5                 4 3 6
4 BROWN, LORENZO 27:13 10 2/8 1/4 3/4   2 2 4 2 3   1 3 3 4
5 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 7:08 3   1/4             1     1 1 -1
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 21:15 4 2/3     1 1 2 1 1       4 1 4
10 LAZIC, BRANKO 18:28 6   2/3     2 2     1     3   3
12 BARON, BILLY 29:15 15 3/4 2/5 3/3 1 2 3 2 1 2     1 3 17
15 GIST, JAMES 22:54 11 4/6   3/3 2 2 4 4 1     1 1 2 18
21 JAGODIC-KURIDZA, MARKO 17:06 3 1/2 0/1 1/2   2 2     3 1   2 3 1
28 SIMANIC, BORISA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
32 JOVANOVIC, NIKOLA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
50 OJO, MICHAEL 17:09 6 2/3   2/4 2 3 5 1 1 1 1   4 2 8
91 STIMAC, VLADIMIR 17:55 11 5/8   1/2 1 3 4 1       1 2 2 11
Team             3 3               3
Totals 200:00 81 21/39 7/20 18/23 7 20 27 13 6 11 2 3 25 20 74
        53.8% 35% 78.3%
Head coach: SAKOTA, DRAGAN
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
3 BOLOMBOY, JOEL 11:41 2 1/1 0/2                   2   -2
5 JAMES, MIKE 30:40 29 3/8 3/11 14/18 1 2 3 3   3   1 1 8 21
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 7:47   0/1 0/1   1 1 2   2           2
13 STRELNIEKS, JANIS 8:03 2 1/2       1 1               2
17 VOIGTMANN, JOHANNES 21:16 6 3/3 0/1     2 2 3     1   4 2 9
23 HACKETT, DANIEL 25:55 19 3/4 3/7 4/4   3 3 1 2 3     3 5 19
26 SANT-ROOS, HOWARD 18:05 2 1/2     3 2 5 2   1     2   5
31 KOUFOS, KOSTA 6:43           3 3       1   1 1 4
32 HILLIARD, DARRUN 18:44 12 3/5 1/3 3/5 1 2 3 1   2   1 2 4 9
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 23:49 8 2/2 0/3 4/6 1 3 4 2 2 1     1 3 12
42 HINES, KYLE 26:13 6 3/4     5 5 10 2   2 1   4 2 14
84 BAKER, RON 1:04                              
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 86 20/32 7/28 25/33 13 25 38 14 6 12 3 2 20 25 97
        62.5% 25% 75.8%
Head coach: ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

Head Coaches

SAKOTA, DRAGAN
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"We played against a team that entered the game as the top defensive team in the EuroLeague, and we scored 81 points. We played without two really important players, Charles Jenkins and Ognjen Dobric. We gave our best as much as CSKA allowed us. I have no complaints about my players. We are giving our best and competed with CSKA the entire game. We were away from home 11 days, we played eight games in 16 days, and played against a team that had much more time to prepare."
ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"That third quarter gave us a boost. I think that we went in with a good defensive mentality to make stops, and at the same time trusted our system. All the shots we missed in the first half were good shots. We had to trust our ball movement to make shots, which happens eventually, and we did that. Essentially, you've got to read the defense. They were switching a lot, so we had to isolate and play a little bit more like that. But overall, I think it was a good win for us, for my team, and we're looking forward to the future. Big or small, it's a win, and that's something important in this league. We had our good moments, they had theirs, but we were expecting that it would be a tough game."

Players

JAMES, MIKE
CSKA Moscow
"I just kept shooting and I guess I just kind of played the odds. But I really didn't shoot that well, and I didn't really play the best. But I tried to keep being aggressive and listen to my teammates, and it went well. Our attention to detail [was crucial]. We struggle when we have lapses. I think we moved the ball well and got open shots and finally we just made some and that's why we won."
HACKETT, DANIEL
CSKA Moscow
"The important thing is to win. We were coming off a two-game losing streak. We had a small break, and we came back focused. We had four days to prepare this game. We knew it was not going to be easy in this difficult environment with a well-coached team. I thought in the second half we played much better, and we got the game where we wanted. The third quarter was very important. We picked up our energy, got a lot of stops, we started playing much more aggressive than the first half. That gave us a boost to control the game in the second half."
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