CSKA tops Bamberg in Fridzon’s jumper at the buzzer

Vitaly Fridzon nailed a baseline jumper as time expired to lift CSKA Moscow to a thrilling 88-90 road win over Brose Bamberg on Thursday night. CSKA improved to a league-best 9-1 record, while Bamberg remains in the cellar at 2-8 after a fantastic game that saw Bamberg rally from a 19-point third quarter deficit and take a slim lead in the fourth quarter. But CSKA saw its magician Milos Teodosic hit 7 three-pointers and finish with 31 points along with 8 assists to lead it to victory. Teodosic had 15 of those points in the fourth quarter and Andrey Vorontsevich scored 15 on the night, including a key pair of free throws with 10.8 seconds left in the game. Fridzon and Kyle Hines finished with 9 points apiece. Nicolo Melli was spectacular for Bamberg with 26 points on 5-for-6 two-point shooting, 3-of-4 from downtown, and 7-for-8 from the foul line. Daniel Theis fought his way to 19 points and 9 rebounds, Fabien Causeur scored 12, and Janis Strelnieks 11 points in Bamberg’s fourth consecutive defeat.

Melli and Causeur hit back-to-back threes to open the scoring, but CSKA answered with a 0-10 run in which Teodosic hit his first three and Hines went for a coast-to-coast dunk. Teodosic passed 2,500 career points with a three from the corner that gave CSKA a 14-17 lead late in the first quarter, and Victor Khryapa strung together 6 points early in the second as CSKA did not allow a single basket for more than three minutes in opening a 16-24 margin. Bamberg got within a single possession behind Melli, but Teodosic fueled another CSKA run and then Higgins helped the visitors score the last 7 points of the second quarter and reach their first double-digit lead, 30-41 at halftime. CSKA opened the third quarter with back-to-back threes from Vorontsevich and Teodosic, and the visitors soon led 32-51. But Strelnieks hit a three and Miller and Melli made runners for Bamberg, which also saw Causeur and Miller hit threes in a 9-0 run that helped cut the deficit to 58-61 at the end of third quarter. After two more triples, one each from Melli and Zisis, it was Theis whose three-point play tied things at 67-67 with six minutes remaining. The teams traded blows and exchanged leads on almost every possession as the game went down to the wire. Fridzon had a three-point play, and Teodosic hit three triples down the stretch, but Bamberg had its answers in Melli, Causeur and Theis. The latter cut it 83-84 with 1:10 to go, before a series of free throws on both sides set the thrilling finish. With the score at 88-88 and 8.1 seconds to go, Teodosic took the ball and drove to the hoop, only for Theis to swat the shot out of bounds. But there was still 1.7 seconds left and Teodosic inbounded the ball finding Fridzon all alone on the right side. Fridzon hit nothing but the net from six meters out to give CSKA its ninth win of the season.