2020-21Regular SeasonRound 31
CSKA Moscow 87
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 72
March 25, 2021 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

CSKA beats Zvezda for its 20th win

CSKA Moscow took another step toward clinching a spot in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs by downing Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 87-72 in the Russian capital on Thursday. CSKA improved to 20-10 and could qualify before the end of the night depending on other results. Zvezda dropped to 9-22 and remains 17th in the standings, with no mathematical chance to advance. Toko Shengelia paced the winners with 16 points, Daniel Hackett added 15, Johannes Voigtmann and Will Clyburn each scored 14 and Mike James 13 for CSKA. Dejan Davidovac led Zvezda with a career-high 20 points, Landry Nnoko added 12 and Langston Hall 11 for the visitors. James, Hackett and Shengelia helped CSKA to a 31-19 margin after 10 minutes. CSKA kept a 50-39 lead at halftime and extended it to 74-59 early in the fourth quarter, which was enough to keep full control of the game until the final buzzer.

James and Michael Eric got CSKA going and Hackett hit a corner triple for a 7-2 lead. Davidovac answered from downtown and Jordan Loyd added a coast-to-coast layup to tie it at 7-7. James, Eric and Hackett kept pushing the hosts, but Nnoko followed a layup with an alley-oop slam for a 16-11 Zvezda score. Shengelia took over with a couple of three-point plays and Hackett added a three-pointer to make it a double-digit game, 26-14. Hall hit a jumper and Ognjen Dobric struck from beyond the arc, but Iffe Lundberg and Voigtmann established a 31-19 CSKA lead after 10 minutes. Voigtmann recorded his second three-point play, fed Janis Strelnieks for a layup and added a triple for a 40-24 CSKA cushion. Hall and Loyd stepped up for Zvezda and Walden's layup gave his team hope at 43-30. Marko Jagodic-Kuridza followed a power layup with a tip-in, Loyd bettered James's running hook with a bomb from downtown and Marko Simonovic helped Zvezda get within 48-39. Eric banked in a close shot to fix the halftime score at 50-39.

Davidovac followed a triple with a driving layup to bring Zvezda closer, 53-45, soon after the break. James hit a floater and Eric added a jump hook in a 6-0 run that Hackett capped with a jumper. Nnoko scored down low and Davidovac added a floater and a layup for a 61-51 Zvezda deficit. Dobric sank his second triple, but Shengelia and Clyburn restored a 65-54 CSKA lead. Hall found space for a driving layup, then Semen Antonov, Voigtmann and Simonovic each struck from beyond the arc for a 71-59 score after 30 minutes. Clyburn joined the three-point shootout early in the fourth quarter. Hall and Nnoko each scored around the basket and Simonovic struck from downtown, prompting CSKA to call timeout at 74-66. Voigtmann downed a floater and Hackett scored in the low post to give the hosts fresh air, 78-67, with 4 minutes left. Shengelia dunked and had a big block on Loyd, which allowed James to seal the outcome, 82-69, with over 2 minutes remaining.

Pivotal performer

Daniel Hackett played a major role on offense after six consecutive games scoring in single figures. He finished the game with 15 points on 2-of-3 three-point shooting plus 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 7 fouls drawn for a game-high PIR of 24.

Game-changing moment

Ognjen Dobric hit a triple to bring Zvezda within 28-19, but CSKA found a go-to guy in Johannes Voigtmann. He stepped up with back-to-back three-point plays, sent a 25-meter baseball pass to Janis Strelnieks for a reverse layup and added a bomb from downtown to boost CSKA's lead to 40-24. The hosts never looked back after that.

Stellar stat

CSKA outrebounded Zvezda 39-33, pulling down 14 offensive boards. It also shot the ball much better inside the arc (54.8%, Zvezda 45.2%) and committed just 7 turnovers.

Did you know?

With this win, CSKA is 6-0 at home against Zvezda since the turn of the millennium and 8-0 overall. CSKA has won its last four home against Zvezda by an average margin of 18.3 points.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action early next week. CSKA visits Zenit St Petersburg, featuring former star guard Vitaly Fridzon, in an all-Russian showdown on Tuesday, March 30. Zvezda hosts AX Armani Exchange Milan in the Serbian capital that same evening.

Tornike Shengelia - CSKA Moscow - EB20
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: ROCHA, FERNANDO; KOROMILAS, ELIAS; ROSSI, MICHELE
Attendance: 4402
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow31192116
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade19202013
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CSKA Moscow31507187
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade19395972
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 LUNDBERG, IFFE 11:09 2 1/1     1   1     1     1   1
4 KHOMENKO, ALEXANDER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 JAMES, MIKE 26:33 13 3/6 1/5 4/4   1 1 4   2   1 1 6 13
7 UKHOV, IVAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 HACKETT, DANIEL 28:51 15 3/7 2/3 3/4   6 6 3 1       2 7 24
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 12:00 3 0/2 1/1 0/2   1 1             1 1
13 STRELNIEKS, JANIS 13:27 2 1/2 0/1     2 2 1             3
17 VOIGTMANN, JOHANNES 20:53 14 3/4 2/4 2/2 1 5 6 1   1 1   3 2 17
21 CLYBURN, WILL 28:42 14 4/6 1/3 3/5 2 3 5 1   1     2 4 15
23 SHENGELIA, TORNIKE 28:00 16 4/9 1/3 5/6 4 3 7 2 1 1 2 1 1 6 23
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 11:18     0/1   1   1     1     1   -2
50 ERIC, MICHAEL 19:07 8 4/5     4 4 8 1 1     1 2   14
Team           1   1     1          
Totals 200:00 87 23/42 8/21 17/23 14 25 39 13 3 8 3 3 13 26 109
        54.8% 38.1% 73.9%
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
1 HALL, LANGSTON 16:52 11 4/6 1/2   1 1 2 2 1 1     2 1 11
2 WALDEN, COREY 23:08 2 1/3 0/2 0/1   3 3 3 1 1     5 1 -1
3 LOYD, JORDAN 28:06 9 2/6 1/5 2/2   4 4 2 2     2 4 3 6
4 USKOKOVIC, ALEKSA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 27:13 20 4/5 4/6     1 1 3 1       2 1 21
12 RADANOV, ALEKSA 7:29   0/1       1 1           2   -2
13 DOBRIC, OGNJEN 18:29 6 0/3 2/4   1   1 1   2     2 1  
19 SIMONOVIC, MARKO 19:51 8 1/2 2/4   1 2 3 1       1 3   5
21 JAGODIC-KURIDZA, MARKO 18:52 4 2/4     2 1 3     2     3    
32 KUZMIC, OGNJEN 11:45   0/2     1 1 2 1     1   2 2 2
35 NNOKO, LANDRY 28:15 12 5/10   2/4 6 4 10 1   2 2   1 4 19
Team           1 2 3     2         1
Totals 200:00 72 19/42 10/23 4/7 13 20 33 14 5 10 3 3 26 13 62
        45.2% 43.5% 57.1%
Head coach: RADONJIC, DEJAN

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"First of all, I congratulate my team. We played much better defense in the second half. We could have had a better outcome on the offensive end, but my team was concentrated to defend. We gave up 33 points [in the second half] and that is what gave us the boost to win this game. I can't say much [about Joel Bolomboy's injury] because right now, we are in the process of evaluating but thank God, it is not broken. Joel is a strong guy and is going to come back healthy. This year is amazing, how it went with injuries, but we keep believing on ourselves and my players are having a huge - a tremendous, I would say - belief in the team's potential and this is what it is, staying positive, try to actually accept each and every obstacle as an opportunity and try to grow. And this is what we are going to do now."
RADONJIC, DEJAN
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"Congratulations to CSKA for the win. We were very soft in the beginning of the game. They scored 31 points in the first 10 minutes - too much, of course, and made the advantage. After that, we played better, but in the second quarter, what was a problem for us were box-out situations. They got a lot of rebounds, and the second half was also better in that case, but they controlled the game and deserved to win tonight. We will use all games to try to play in the best possible way, to give our maximum. We always have motivation to play the EuroLeague competition, to be on the court, and we will play all three [remaining] games giving our maximum."

Players

SHENGELIA, TORNIKE
CSKA Moscow
"I think we played great overall, but defensively, we were much better than in our last games, when we were losing. We also knew the value of this game, how much it meant for us. Not only this, but the next upcoming games also: if you want to rank as high as possible and get the home-court advantage, we have to win most definitely all the game. I think that if we play this level of defense against anybody, offensively we have enough weapons to go and score enough, but we have to make a lot of stops and play defense as a team."
HACKETT, DANIEL
CSKA Moscow
"We played hard. They are a well-coached team, but run their stuff. They have a big scorer in Loyd and we were focused to do the job defensively on him. Overall, we were a little bit sloppy in the second quarter, but in the second half, we gave up only 33 points and that was the key, working on the rebounds, our big men were very important, sharing the ball and trying to make the big plays."
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