2018-19PlayoffsGame 1
CSKA Moscow 94
KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 68
April 16, 2019 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

CSKA shreds Baskonia in Game 1

CSKA Moscow began the playoffs with a convincing 94-68 victory over KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in Game 1 of their best-of-five series on Tuesday evening at Megasport Arena in the Russian capital. It was a 1-point game early in the third quarter before Sergio Rodriguez and Nikita Kurbanov each hit back-to-back three-pointers as the hosts took control for good. The victory was CSKA's 15th in a row over Baskonia in Moscow dating back to 2005. Rodriguez led the CSKA attack with 19 points and 5 assists. Cory Higgins added 12 points, Nando De Colo scored 11 and Kurbanov and Will Clyburn netted 10 points apiece. All 12 CSKA players scored at least 3 points. Shavon Shields paced Baskonia's scored with 17 points and Vincent Poirier and Darrun Hilliard scored 12 points each.

The first basket of the playoffs came from the hands of Poirier before Higgins got CSKA going with a three-pointer. The teams traded baskets and a Poirier tip-in left them even at 9-9 at the first TV timeout. Clyburn's steal and layup gave CSKA the first two-possession lead of the game, 21-17, but Matt Janning came off the bench after a missing more than a month through injury to nail a triple for Baskonia. Hilliard free throws lifted Baskonia to a 23-24 edge after 10 minutes. De Colo made his mark with a deep three to beat the shot clock and a pair of free throws as CSKA climbed in front 30-26. Shields scored twice in a 0-7 Baskonia run to take a 32-35 advantage. Rodriguez heated up with 5 quick points as CSKA regained the lead. Higgins's three-point play lifted CSKA to a 44-40 halftime edge.

Back-to-back three-pointers by Rodriguez early in the second half put the hosts up 50-43. Despite the best efforts of Shields, CSKA took control as Kurbanov struck twice from behind the arc for the game's first double-digit lead, 58-47. A Baskonia timeout changed little as Clyburn added a three before Higgins capped an 11-0 CSKA run with free throws that made it 63-47. A Joel Bolomboy three-pointer extended the margin to 73-52 through three quarters. Baskonia did not throw in the towel and scored the first 5 points of the fourth quarter through a Marcelinho Huertas three-pointer and a Poirier slam. However, a jumper by De Colo and an offensive foul by Shields that fouled him out doomed the visitors. CSKA played with confidence the rest of the way while breaking out a few showtime passes to seal a convincing Game 1 win.

Game-changing sequence

Shavon Shields opened the third quarter with a three-pointer that drew Baskonia within 44-43, but that was as close as the visitors would get the rest of the way. Sergio Rodriguez connected on back-to-back three-pointers and shortly after Nikita Kurbanov highlighted an 11-0 CSKA run with a pair of triples. By the time the third quarter reached its midway points, CSKA had completed a 19-4 tear to lead by 16 and cruised the rest of the way.

Stellar stats

CSKA dominated from behind the arc with 13 three-pointers made from 23 tries (56.5%). Eight different CSKA players knocked down threes with Sergio Rodriguez leading the way with 5 threes from 6 shots. In contrast, Baskonia was 8 for 29 (27.6%) from deep and only one player (Darrun Hilliard) made multiple threes.

Did you notice?

Despite the result, Vincent Poirier accomplished a historic feat early in the game. His first-quarter tip-in gave him 101 offensive rebounds for the season and thus broke his tie with Anadolu Efes Istanbul center Bryant Dunston for the most in a single season in competition history. Dunston set the record in the 2016-17 season. Poirier finished the game with 104 and still has at least two more games to pad the record.

Sergio Rodriguez - CSKA Moscow - EB18
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; LATISEVS, OLEGS; PANTHER, ANNE
Attendance: 6252
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow23212921
KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz24161216
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow23447394
KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz24405268
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 16:03 11 2/2 1/3 4/4   1 1 1 1 2     2 5 13
3 BOLOMBOY, JOEL 11:51 3 0/1 1/1   1 1 2     1     1   2
5 PETERS, ALEC 17:27 4 1/2 0/1 2/2   2 2   2     1 3 2 4
7 UKHOV, IVAN 5:46 3   1/2             2     1   -1
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 20:45 19 2/3 5/6     1 1 5   1     3 2 21
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 5:16 3   1/1         1             4
21 CLYBURN, WILL 24:53 10 3/4 1/4 1/2   6 6 2 2 1 2 1 1 3 17
22 HIGGINS, CORY 24:37 12 2/4 1/2 5/5   3 3 2   4     1 6 15
23 HACKETT, DANIEL 19:19 7 0/1 0/1 7/8   2 2 2 1 1     2 4 10
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 19:19 10   2/2 4/4   2 2 1   1     2 3 13
42 HINES, KYLE 16:08 5 2/5   1/1 1 1 2 2         2 2 6
44 HUNTER, OTHELLO 18:36 7 3/3   1/2 1 4 5 2 1         1 15
Team           3 2 5               5
Totals 200:00 94 15/25 13/23 25/28 6 25 31 18 7 13 2 2 18 28 124
        60% 56.5% 89.3%
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
KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 VILDOZA, LUCA 23:40 5 1/1 1/5   1 1 2 2 1 2     4 3 3
5 GONZALEZ, MIGUEL DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 VOIGTMANN, JOHANNES 23:17 2 1/2 0/2   2 3 5 5   3 1   3 2 6
9 HUERTAS, MARCELINHO 19:12 5 0/2 1/2 2/2 1   1 2 1 3     4 3 2
11 JANNING, MATT 16:49 5 0/2 1/4 2/2 1 1 2 1 1         1 5
12 DIOP, ILIMANE 13:15           2 2 1   1 1   3    
17 POIRIER, VINCENT 24:30 12 6/9     4 1 5 1 1 1     2 1 14
21 JONES, JALEN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 SHENGELIA, TORNIKE 18:54 6 1/4 1/3 1/2   1 1   2 1     2 4 4
29 GARINO, PATRICIO 16:23 4   1/2 1/2           1     3 1 -1
31 SHIELDS, SHAVON 20:06 17 7/9 1/4   1 2 3 2   1   1 5   10
32 HILLIARD, DARRUN 23:54 12 2/4 2/7 2/2 1 3 4 1   1   1 2 3 9
Team                                
Totals 200:00 68 18/33 8/29 8/10 11 14 25 15 6 14 2 2 28 18 52
        54.5% 27.6% 80%
Head coach: PERASOVIC, VELIMIR

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"First of all, I would like to say congratulations to my players, to my team. This is a playoff series and we are playing against a very tough opponent. We know that it's tough. We are smart enough to understand that this is the playoffs. We won with a big margin at the end, but we know what kind of a big effort we put in, especially in that third quarter where we outplayed them. It's the second time that this happened. Recently we played them in the final round of the regular season and in the last quarter, we really played outstanding defense where we gave up only 12 points and scored 27. Today happened a similar thing. Overall I'm happy with the way it went. But we know that it's just 1-0."
PERASOVIC, VELIMIR
KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
"First of all, congratulations to CSKA. They played much better today and they deserved this victory. I think the key of the game was the beginning of the third quarter. CSKA scored a lot of three-point shots and they broke the game. After that, we tried, but the game was finished at that moment. They led by 15-16 points and after that, it was very difficult for us to come back. Like always, they have great percentages on three-point shots and the big number of free throws is something we must make better is we want to stay in the game."

Players

CLYBURN, WILL
CSKA Moscow
"It's playoff time and I think everybody is buying in to what we're doing. Everybody's bringing that intensity and everybody knows how important it is. Everybody's on the same page defensively and when that happens, we are getting stops and getting on the break. Our game plan was exactly how we wanted it to go, but we don't expect every game to go like this for sure. They are a good team, they are going to fight and we have to come out and bring that same energy we brought today."
RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO
CSKA Moscow
"First of all, we came ready. We know this is playoff time. We are very motivated and we have to be very solid in every aspect of the game. It was the first game; we are happy about the win, but we have another one in two days. We have a lot of experience in the playoffs, so we know it is game by game. We cannot relax and we cannot be overexcited. It was a good game for us. I think we showed the capability that we have to play defense and offense and now we get ready for the next one."
HILLIARD, DARRUN
KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz
"It's only 1-0. It wasn't the best game we played. We know that. They are a great team. I think that's the great experience about the playoffs. You get to back and look at film and see what they did better than us. We get another chance on Thursday. Hopefully, it will be better and we'll be more ready to play on Thursday. We have to definitely improve a lot. They beat us pretty good. Most important I think is defense. We have to figure out a way to defend one-on-one, keep guys in front of us. They have a lot of weapons, We have to figure it out. We have to watch film and stay on the same page. We have to stick together. I think we'll be fine on Thursday."
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