2020-21Regular SeasonRound 2
CSKA Moscow 76
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 72
October 08, 2020 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

Clyburn, James power CSKA past Maccabi

CSKA Moscow outlasted Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 76-72 in a tough contest on Thursday night at Megasport Arena in the Russian capital. Mike James scored 25 points and Will Clyburn added 19 to lead the 2019 champs. The two combined for 25 of their team's 31 fourth-quarter points to carry CSKA to victory. Toko Shengelia was also instrumental with 8 points and 12 rebounds. Scottie Wilbekin led Maccabi with 20 points and 5 assists, Tyler Dorsey added 16 points and Ante Zizic tallied 13 points and 9 rebounds.

An aggressive Shengelia drew a pair of fouls from Othello Hunter in the game's first 90 seconds, which caused the visitors to go to the bench early. The CSKA big man's second basket gave his team their first lead, 6-5. An issue at the scorers' table paused the game for several minutes, after which Daniel Hackett and Nikita Kurbanov completed an 8-0 run. A pair of threes by Dorsey ended the visitors' drought, however, Darrun Hilliard responded for CSKA. Chris Jones's jumper made it 20-15 after 10 minutes. Dragan Bender helped Maccabi trim the deficit with a put-back and a free throw, but Clyburn came alive with a jumper, a steal and a slam to make it 28-20. Wilbekin came up with a pair of steals that led to layups for his teammates. A three-point play by Dorsey drew Maccabi within 31-30 at the break.

Zizic opened the second half with a pair of free throws that gave the visitors their first lead since the first quarter, but a triple by Joel Bolomboy put CSKA back on top. Maccabi twice tied and both times James answered. A dunk by Bender kept it close, 45-44, through three quarters. Zizic scored three times early in the fourth quarter to push Maccabi ahead 48-50. A CSKA timeout got the hosts back on track as Clyburn drained a three, but Wilbekin found his touch with a pair of triples to make it 53-58. James connected from downtown to keep CSKA in touch. Back-to-back threes by James and Nikita Kurbanov put CSKA in front 64-62 and prompted a Maccabi timeout with less than 3 minutes to play. With the game in the balance, CSKA stopped Maccabi on four consecutive possessions before Wilbekin sank free throws. Clyburn sank a clutch three over his former teammate hunter to make it 72-66 with 38 seconds remaining. Maccabi pressed on, but 4 free throws by Clyburn settled the outcome.

Pivotal player

Will Clyburn showed during the second quarter that his explosiveness is back after the knee injury that cost him most of the 2019-20 season. He did that when he poked free a steal and raced downcourt for a thunderous slam and foul. But it was late in the game where the clutch skills that made him the 2019 Final Four MVP came to the fore. Clyburn knocked down a clutch three-pointer with 38 seconds remaining and added 4 free throws late to secure the victory. He scored 14 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, in which he also blocked a pair of three-point shots.

Three-point woes

In a game where so many team statistical categories were close, the differences in three-point shooting stood out greatly. CSKA made 10 of 26 three-point tries for a 38.5% conversion rate. Maccabi struggled mightily, making 7 of 31 for 22.6%. Two players accounted for much of that with Scottie Wilbekin shooting 4 for 15 and Tyler Dorsey 3 for 10. Elijah Bryant and Dragan Bender were each 0 for 3.

A milestone for Hunter

An offensive rebound for Maccabi center Othello Hunter early in the second quarter made him the 17th player in competition history to reach 1,000 career rebounds. It also gave him sole possession of seventh place on the all-time offensive rebounding charts with 419. He surpassed Kerem Gonlum for that mark.

What's next?

Both teams will be back in action already on Wednesday, October 14, for the start of the first two-round week of the season. Maccabi will host FC Bayern Munich and CSKA will visit Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.

Will Clyburn - CSKA Moscow - EB20
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: BELOSEVIC, ILIJA; MOGULKOC, EMIN; VYKLICKY, ROBERT
Attendance: 3587
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow20111431
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv15151428
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow20314576
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv15304472
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 BOLOMBOY, JOEL 28:01 5 1/3 1/2   2 5 7   2 1 1   3   8
4 KHOMENKO, ALEXANDER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 JAMES, MIKE 30:03 25 2/4 4/6 9/10   2 2 3   2     2 7 28
6 HILLIARD, DARRUN 24:07 7 2/5 1/4   2 3 5     1       2 7
7 UKHOV, IVAN 3:44                         1   -1
10 HACKETT, DANIEL 25:55 4 1/2 0/1 2/2   4 4 2 2 3     2 1 6
17 VOIGTMANN, JOHANNES 13:30 3 0/2 1/4   1 2 3     1   1 2 1 -2
21 CLYBURN, WILL 23:11 19 2/5 2/4 9/9         1 1 2   2 6 20
23 SHENGELIA, TORNIKE 31:04 8 3/8 0/3 2/3 3 9 12 3   2   1 4 7 14
28 LOPATIN, ANDREI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 20:25 5 1/1 1/2   1 3 4 2   1 1   3   7
Team           1   1     1          
Totals 200:00 76 12/30 10/26 22/24 10 28 38 10 5 13 4 2 19 24 87
        40% 38.5% 91.7%
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
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 BRYANT, ELIJAH 23:34 6 2/2 0/3 2/2   3 3     1     2 2 5
1 WILBEKIN, SCOTTIE 29:32 20 3/5 4/15 2/2 1 3 4 5 3 1   1 1 4 20
3 JONES, CHRIS 12:43 4 2/4       2 2 3 1 1     1 1 7
4 CALOIARO, ANGELO 23:10 2 0/1   2/2   2 2 2 1 2 1   2 2 5
5 HUNTER, OTHELLO 17:16 2 1/5     2 2 4   1 1     4 1 -1
6 COHEN, SANDY 10:24                         2   -2
11 DORSEY, TYLER 32:50 16 1/5 3/10 5/5 1 4 5 2 1 3   1 2 4 11
14 BLAYZER, OZ 3:34                         4   -4
17 BENDER, DRAGAN 23:29 9 4/4 0/3 1/2 2 2 4 1 1   1   3 1 10
23 ZIZIC, ANTE 23:28 13 5/10   3/4 4 5 9     1   2 3 4 14
24 ALBER, EIDAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
25 ATIAS, YONATAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team           4   4               4
Totals 200:00 72 18/36 7/31 15/17 14 23 37 13 8 10 2 4 24 19 69
        50% 22.6% 88.2%
Head coach: SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"First of all I would like to congratulate my team and my players. That was a very important win. Second of all, it's good to play again back home with almost 4,000 spectators or whatever it was, 3,500. It was great to see them. I think that they motivate my players, too. It was a close game. As I [said] at halftime, we needed to change a lot of things and I think we changed a lot of things in the second half. But Maccabi never gave up and as a team with a big roster, they're big, they play big, they tried to play big with Caloiaro at the '3'. They were good on the boards but I think we managed to win the boards by 1 overall. I think we kept believing in the win and this is how the win came.”
SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
"It was a close game, a game that it was obvious it'll be close at the end. I think both teams couldn't establish their rhythm in the game, in the beginning, in the second and third periods. I think CSKA was ahead of us, but we were always ready to come back and it was a good game with good defenses, good tactics and I think it was a good game to enjoy. In the last period, I think we had a chance we had the lead 5 points… But CSKA has experience and quality and knows how to come back. It was the first time in the game that we led by 5 points and as you saw, in the last period CSKA scored some very tough shots and it was very tough for us to come back. We didn’t have the time."

Players

CLYBURN, WILL
CSKA Moscow
“We beat a talented team today. It was good to come out and get a first win in the EuroLeague, especially good at home in front of our fans. It was good game."
JAMES, MIKE
CSKA Moscow
"[Maccabi] played good. I think it was a little bit of a slow game. There weren’t a lot of points, there was some good defense. We played good, we shared the ball, we got some open shots and we came out the win."
DORSEY, TYLER
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
"I think we had a good game, we had a great stretch of runs, but in the third quarter and in the fourth we had bad stretches of leaving guys open and making little mistakes at the end. We will learn from this, it's still early in the season and we will learn from this. Now we look ahead at a double week and we got to get back to it and back to winning. We will find a way to win on the road next time."
BENDER, DRAGAN
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv
"Tough game. We played good, but missed some details that cost us the game in the end. We are just trying to find our rhythm and team chemistry and played good in some parts of tonight's game. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we are ready for it. Regardless, I’m proud of us, how we fought and played hard until the end."
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