Shved leads CSKA rout of Panathinaikos

In a battle of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague giants, CSKA Moscow grabbed its third consecutive victory by downing Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 97-77 in the Russian capital on Thursday. CSKA lifted its record to 8-5 while Panathinaikos dropped to 3-10 and has yet to win a road game in six tries this season. Alexey Shved led the winners with 17 points and 13 assists. Semen Antonov and Will Clyburn each added 16 points and Iffe Lundberg had 11 while Nikola Milutinov pulled down 13 rebounds for CSKA. Okaro White led Panathinaikos with 19 points. Jeremy Evans added 15, Georgios Papagiannis and Nemanja Nedovic 14 each, and Howard Sant-Roos 10 for the Greens. Shved and Antonov combined for 5 three-pointers among eight scorers who staked CSKA a 31-22 lead after 10 minutes. Joel Bolomboy took over with back-to-back dunks in the second quarter and Clyburn boosted his team's lead to 47-30. Nemanja Nedovic and Okaro White brought Panathinaikos within 53-38 at halftime. Nothing changed after that break as CSKA raised the margin to 74-53 at the end of the third quarter and sealed the outcome long before the final buzzer.

White and Shved traded triples and Sant-Roos hit a jumper for an early 3-5 Panathinaikos lead. Antonov and Lundberg each struck from downtown and Milutinov dunked in an 8-1 run that gave CSKA an 11-6 edge. Nedovic stepped up with a three-point play but Shved hit twice more from beyond the arc and Antonov added another one to boost the hosts' margin to 20-11. White and Nedovic kept pacing Panathinaikos and Kendrick Perry added a fastbreak layup but CSKA found new scorers in Marius Grigonis, Ivan Ukhov, Bolomboy and Clyburn for a 29-20 lead. Grigonis matched Jeremy Evans's layup with a jumper, fixing the score at 31-22 after 10 minutes.

Evans had a highlight with a put-back slam early in the second quarter. CSKA went scoreless for more than 2 minutes until Shved stepped up with a triple. Bolomboy hit a jump-hook and bettered Papagiannis's alley-oop slam with a wild dunk and subsequent free throw that boosted CSKA's lead to 39-26. Bolomboy dunked again but Nedovic and Papagiannis kept the Greens within 41-30. Clyburn had all CSKA's points in a 6-0 run that broke the game open, 47-30. Papagiannis buried a jumper, getting help from Sant-Roos and White to keep Panathinaikos within striking distance. Bit Ukhov sank a three-pointer to push CSKA's margin to 53-38 at halftime.

Nikita Kurbanov found his first points soon after the break and Antonov followed a jumper with a put-back layup for a 59-38 CSKA lead. A red-hot Antonov buried a three-pointer but Evans answered from beyond the arc and added an alley-oop slam to keep the Greens within 62-43. Milutinov fed Shved for a dunk and finished an alley-oop slam but White and Nedovic sank back-to-back triples for Panathinaikos to stay within 66-49. Clyburn scored in penetration, Grigonis joined the three-point shootout, and Kenneth Faired ignited the crowd with an alley-oop dunk. Then, Clyburn scored in penetration for a 21-point CSKA margin, 74-53, after 30 minutes.

Grigonis kept pacing the hosts with a driving layup early in the fourth quarter. White scored in the low post and Papagiannis added back-to-back dunk to bring the Greens a bit closer, 79-60. White buried a corner triple to give Panathinaikos hope, 79-63, with over 6 minutes left. Milutinov stepped up with a three-point play and Antonov allowed CSKA to seal the outcome, 85-67, midway through the fourth quarter. Panathinaikos kept trying and Sant-Roos's four-point play brought his team within 87-71 but it was too little, too late for the Greens.

Antonov makes the difference

CSKA Moscow had severe frontcourt problems before its Round 13 game against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. Johannes Voigtmann and Toko Shengelia were unavailable due to injury, but CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis found answers, as other players stepped up to cover their absences. Semen Antonov averaged 1.3 points and 0.7 rebounds until now in less than 6 minutes per night. Antonov made the most out of his opportunity, finishing the game with 16 points while hitting 2 of 3 two-pointers and 4 of 6 three-point shots, adding 2 rebounds and 2 blocks for a PIR of 15. He matched his career-best scoring effort. Antonov had previously scored 16 points only once in his 170 EuroLeague games over seven seasons, for Nizhny Novgorod against Real Madrid on April 12, 2014, when he was a rookie in the competition.

Three-pointers led CSKA to eighth win

CSKA Moscow had to battle hard to overcome injuries and beat Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 97-77 in Round 13. CSKA relied on its three-point shots and outstanding ball circulation to add its eighth victory. The Russian powerhouse buried 14 of 28 three-pointers (50.0%) and limited Panathinaikos to just 7 of 25 shots from downtown (28.0%). CSKA had 24 assists and just 11 turnovers. Alexey Shved had 13 assists, matching his career-best effort and falling one short of CSKA's club record. Milos Teodosic dished 14 assists for CSKA against Unicaja Malaga on January 22, 2015.

Milutinov find his rhythm

Nikola Milutinov of CSKA Moscow missed eight games due to injury and struggled to find his rhythm lately. Milutinov was last season's best rebounder at 8.6 per night. He entered his team's game against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens with an average of 2.5 rebounds in 4 games on limited playing time. Milutinov bounced back in the first half against Panathinaikos, grabbing 8 rebounds in less than 11 minutes. He helped CSKA outrebound Panathinaikos by 17-13 before the break. Milutinov finished the game with 9 points, 13 rebounds -- 6 of them on the offensive end -- 3 assists and a PIR of 16.