2002-03Top 16Round 5
April 09, 2003 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 CSKA UNIVERSAL SPORTS HALL

CSKA Moscow was on the very brink of qualification to the Final Four after coming back from big early deficits to smother visiting Efes Pilsen 66-54 in their showdown for first place in Group D on Wednesday. CSKA had to wait for the result of Unicaja-Cibona in Spain later Wednesday to know if it would be among the first Final Four qualifiers, but all in all, its chances looked great. A Cibona loss would put CSKA through even before those two teams meet in the finale in Zagreb next week. Even a Cibona victory against Unicaja might require it to practically blow out CSKA in order to deny the Russians the Final Four. If any team looked like it might steal something from CSKA, it was Efes as it led by double digits in the first quarter. But for 25 minutes starting with the second quarter, CSKA's defense held the Turkish champs to just 24 points, enough to win the game going away. Teenage forward Sergei Monya ignited CSKA's turnaround in the second quarter, when he scored all 10 of his points. Victor Alexander finished the job from there with 18 points and 14 rebounds. J.R. Holden added 12 points and Teodoros Papaloukas 8 assists for the winners. Antonio Granger led Efes with 22 points, 14 in the first 10 minutes and the rest in the last 5, by which time CSKA was in full control. Marcus Brown added 16 points, Kaspars Kambala 13 and 11 rebounds.

Efes shocked CSKA and its fans in the game's first 5 minutes. A pair of three-pointers and an inside drive by Granger sent Efes flying to a 3-12 lead after 4 minutes, 25 seconds. The Efes defense was encouraging early shots by CSKA and vacuuming all the rebounds. Holden stopped the slide for cska, but Brown answered with a dunk as the Efes lead hit 5-14. Songaila's first basket and a pair of Holden free throws seemed to steady CSKA at 9-14, but the hosts had no answer for Granger yet. He drilled his third triple to make it 9-17. Alexander now spoke up for CSKA with his first basket after 4 misses, and after more than a minute of scoring silence, his second jumper from the corner made it 13-17. But on the counterattack, Granger was ready with his fourth three-pointer of the quarter, good enough to give Efes a healthy 13-20 lead after 10 minutes. Granger had 14 of the guests' points.

Monya was the spark that put CSKA back in the picture early in the second quarter. He started the comeback with a triple and a dunk sandwiched around a basket by Songaila. Reserve point guard Teodoros Papaloukas put a 22-22 tie on the scoreboard and Monya did the honors of giving CSKA its first lead of the game with a free throw halfway through the quarter. Efes went 5 minutes without a field goal, until Jurica Golemac, in for the injured Kaya Peker at power forward, took back the lead. But Monya, who was also stopping Granger cold, answered for CSKA with a pair of free throws. Sergei Panov's layup threatened to send CSKA well ahead, but Brown stepped up with a three-pointer to knot the scoreboard, 27-27, then drove for the go-ahead layup. Coming out of a CSKA timout, Monya climbed to 10 points with free throws that made it 29-29, before Panov put the locals ahead with a layup in the final minute. Ender Arslan got a point back for Efes from the foul line, but Alexander dropped a jumper on the last possession to send CSKA to the lockers ahead 33-30.

Holden opened the second half with a three-pointer for CSKA's highest lead, 36-30, but it would soon go higher. The second of 2 jump shots by Alexander put the hosts ahead 42-35 before Kambala hit his second basket of the quarter for Efes. The battle was centered inside, and Alexander hit another of his sweet midrange shots for 44-37 as CSKA threatened to pull away. Alexander stole the next ball, but missed his shot on offense, then Kambala came back and stuck one to make it 44-39. The fates of their teams were resting, for the moment, on the duel between Alexander and Kambala in the paint. As the quarter wound to a close, tensions rose with an exchange of steals, by Mony and Kerem Tunceri, a block by Alexander against Kambala, and missed triples by Holden and Tunceri. The Moscow fans got just what they were hoping for, however, when Nikos Hatzivrettas rose up and buried a three-pointer in the final minute. When Granger missed his try from the arc at the other end, the momentum all belonged to CSKA at 47-39 after 30 minutes.

Brown and Alexander traded baskets to open the final quarter. Holden got to the line on a foul by Brown, however, and gave CSKA the first double-digit lead, 51-41. Efes needed to make up 10 points in 8 minutes, but had scored only 21 total in the previous 22 minutes, since the end of the first quarter. Kambala tried a three and missed but picked up a point at the foul line afterwards and 2 more on an inside basket to make it 44-51. After a CSKA timeout, 2 minutes' worth of missed shots heightened the suspense until - who else? - Alexander sank a new jumper. The CSKA lead was at 53-44 with 5 minutes to play. When Holden followed that with a triple, the Moscow crowd could breathe easier. Granger returned to view with 5 quick points to cut the deficit to 58-49, but less than 3 minutes remained now. He would add another triple, his sixth of the game, just before the final minute, but CSKA was still up 60-52. CSKA was not going to collapse now and the fans in Moscow could make plans to stay up late on Wednesday to see if the qualification for the Final Four might be in hand already.

Wednesday, April 9, 2003
Gokhan Ture, Moscow
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Referees: BETANCOR, MIGUELO; KOROMILAS, KOSTAS; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE
Attendance: 5200
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow13201419
Efes Pilsen2010915
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow13334766
Efes Pilsen20303954
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 PAPALOUKAS, THEODOROS 24:00 6 1/1 0/3 4/4 1 3 4 8 2       3 4 18
5 HOLDEN, JR 37:00 12 1/11 2/5 4/4 2 3 5 3 2     1 3 4 9
6 PANOV, SERGEY 10:00 4 2/2 0/2   1 1 2           2   2
7 PASHUTIN, EVGENY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 SONGAILA, DARIUS 30:00 8 4/8       2 2 1   2 1   2 1 5
10 HATZIVRETTAS, NIKOS 31:00 8 0/1 2/5 2/2   4 4     2 1   3 2 6
11 PASHUTIN, ZAKHAR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 MONIA, SERGEY 18:00 10 1/2 1/4 5/6 2 2 4 1 1   1   1 4 15
13 KHRYAPA, VICTOR 10:00   0/1 0/1     1 1       2   1 1 1
14 SAVRASENKO, ALEKSEY 3:00                              
15 BASHMINOV, ALEXANDR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 ALEXANDER, VICTOR 37:00 18 9/18   0/1 2 12 14   1 2 1   4 1 19
Team           1   1   4           5
Totals 200:00 66 18/44 5/20 15/17 9 28 37 13 10 6 6 1 19 17 80
        40.9% 25% 88.2%
Head coach: IVKOVIC, DUSAN
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
Efes Pilsen
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 ARSLAN, ENDER 15:00 1 0/2 0/1 1/2   2 2 1   1     3 2 -2
5 BROWN, MARCUS 28:00 16 5/10 1/4 3/5 1 3 4 1 2 1   1 2 6 15
6 ONAN, OMER 9:00   0/1 0/1     1 1           1   -2
7 GRANGER, ANTONIO 36:00 22 2/4 6/10   1 5 6 4   2   3 4 2 19
8 EKMEN, ENVER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 TUNCERI, KEREM 25:00     0/4   1 2 3 1 2   1 1 1 1 2
12 GOLEMAC, JURICA 11:00 2 1/2 0/3     1 1 1   3     3 2 -4
13 PASTAL, VALENTIN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
14 PEKER, KAYA 18:00   0/1     2 3 5   1 1       1 5
15 KAMBALA, KASPARS 34:00 13 6/10 0/1 1/3 1 10 11     1   1 2 3 16
19 PARS, ASIM 6:00           2 2             1 3
20 YILMAZ, ALPER 18:00           1 1 1 2 1     1 1 3
Team                     2         -2
Totals 200:00 54 14/30 7/24 5/10 6 30 36 9 7 12 1 6 17 19 53
        46.7% 29.2% 50%
Head coach: MAHMUTI, OKTAY
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Head Coaches

IVKOVIC, DUSAN
CSKA Moscow
"It was a very important and hard game as we expected. If we lost this game, this could have been the end of the season for us. Efes started the game surprisingly well and had too many three-pointers, especially by Antonio Granger. But I want to congratulate all my players that they played with all their hearts. We had the best defensive game of the season except in the first quarter. Now we will look forward to win what we can."
MAHMUTI, OKTAY
Efes Pilsen
"First of all, I would like to congratulate CSKA for their big win. If I analyse the game, I can say that we started the game very well. But we had just three players hot on scoring. And this was not enough for a team against a great team like CSKA. We had a good defensive game but our effort in offense was not enough to change the mood of the game. I don't want to talk about the refrees as I always did. The only thing I can say is that we came here with injury problems and this was another reason of our poor performance in offense."
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