CSKA rolls in makeup win over Panathinaikos

CSKA Moscow finished the regular season on a high note with a 93-86 home victory over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in a Round 25 makeup game. Iffe Lundberg led the way with 19 points for CSKA, which enters its Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoff showdown with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul on a six-game winning streak and a 24-10 record. Will Clyburn added 18 points, Johannes Voigtmann scored 15 and Toko Shengelia chipped in 11 points and 6 rebounds as CSKA was in control of the game throughout. Panathinaikos was paced by Ioannis Papapetrou with 15 points, while Dino Mitoglou had 12 points, Howard Sant-Roos scored 11 and both Aaron White and Nemanja Nedovic had 10 points in the losing effort. The Greens ended up losing nine of their last 11 games to finish with an 11-23 mark and 16th place in the regular season.

Georgios Papagiannis opened the scoring with an alley-oop dunk before Darrun Hilliard scored at the other end. A Lundberg three-pointer gave the hosts their first lead at 5-4. Sant-Roos answered from deep. CSKA kept Panathinaikos scoreless for nearly 3 minutes and Michael Eric added an assist and basket for an 11-7 advantage. Panathinaikos got triples from Ben Bentil and Aaron White in going back up 16-17. Voigtmann gave CSKA a huge boost off the bench with 9 straight points for a 25-17 lead, which was 27-19 after 10 minutes. Semen Antonov started the scoring in the second quarter and Clyburn’s fastbreak layup pushed the gap to double figures, 31-20. White proved a spark for the guests with 4 points in trimming the deficit to 36-31. CSKA punched right back with a 13-2 surge to extend the margin to 49-33. CSKA did not finish the half strong as Panathinaikos tallied 6 points within 67 seconds and trailed 49-39 at the break.

A Nedovic triple to start the second half had the deficit down to 49-42. After Nikita Kurbanov’s three-pointer made it 54-42, Sant-Roos hit from deep to get his team within 54-47. Lundberg scored 7 points as CSKA managed to maintain control. A Clyburn triple at the buzzer had CSKA leading 74-61 after 30 minutes. Panathinaikos would not go down without a fight thanks to the three-pointer as Bentil and Shelvin Mack both hit from deep and Mitoglou drained 2 triples to get the margin down to 79-73 early in the final frame. CSKA got a three-pointer from Janis Strelnieks and a dunk by Voigtmann to re-establish a double-digit gap. Papapetrou and Sant-Roos both hit from the outside to get back within 7 only to have Clyburn drain a triple as well to make it 91-81 with less than 2 minutes to play. Panathinaikos still had one more effort left with a Papapetrou triple making it 91-86 with 58 seconds remaining. But Sant-Roos missed a three-pointer with 26 seconds left as CSKA prevailed.

Lundberg finishes averaging double figures

Mid-season addition Iffe Lundberg collected 19 points to go with 3 rebounds and 5 assists for an index rating of 23. He finished his debut EuroLeague regular season averaging 10.4 points in 10 games.

No Hezonja for the Greens

Panathinaikos finished the regular season missing one of its leaders as Mario Hezonja was not eligible to play because he was not yet registered when this game was originally scheduled to be played in February.

Telling numbers

CSKA converted on 66.7% of its two-pointers and really took advantage of Panathinaikos miscues with a 20-7 difference in points off turnovers.

Next games

CSKA will now prepare for its playoff matchup with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul while Panathinaikos will concentrate the rest of the season on the domestic Greek League.