Montepaschi Siena finished the Citta di Roma tournament in the fifth place following a 55-47 victory over CSKA Moscow on Tuesday evening in Rome, Italy. After reaching the final game in the 2008 edition of the tournament, Montepaschi fought hard to win the last game but came close to drop the game in the last minute. CSKA scored 18 unanswered points in the closing minutes to tie the score only to see Montepaschi connect the last eight points of the night and capture the fifth spot. Diego Monaldi led the winners with 17 points while Nunzio Sabbatino added 11. Alexander Tikhonin and Artem Komolov led CSKA with 12 points each. CSKA turned the ball 29 times against only 8 by Montepaschi but controlled the boards 48-25, and used better accuracy from the arc to write the come back.
The first quarter still showed a close game, as the Italian lead reached only 16-10, but CSKA saw a terrible drought in the second quarter in which it combined only 5 points. Montepaschi didn't enjoy a great shooting day as well, and managed to take off only to a 28-15 score at the break, but when CSKA remained silent after the break as well, the team from Tuscany let loose. Sabbatino and Monaldi scored from the arc and close to the rim to set the score on 39-20 midway in the third quarter. When Monaldi hit another lay up and wrote a 47-29 game in the 33rd minute, it seemed like the game is on the sure path to an easy win, but then it was time for CSKA to wake up. Komolov scored three times in a row from the arc, after just a single three pointer by the entire CSKA team up to that point, and led a run that stopped only in the last minute in a 47-47 tie. Giorgio Sgobba dunked to break the spell for Montepaschi and two missed shots by CSKA were followed by an unsportsmanlike foul by Komolov. Montepaschi converted four points to take a breathing room of a 6 point gap, enough to secure the win and avoid an uncomfortable loss.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Yarone Arbel, Euroleague.net