2016-17Regular SeasonRound 24
FC Barcelona Lassa 61
CSKA Moscow 85
March 03, 2017 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 PALAU BLAUGRANA

CSKA takes off early, downs Barcelona

With a record-setting start to the game, CSKA Moscow grabbed its third consecutive win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by thrashing FC Barcelona Lassa 61-85 at Palau Blaugrana on Friday. CSKA improved to 18-6 in the standings and is all but mathematically into the playoffs while Barcelona dropped to 9-15. Nando De Colo led the winners with 21 points. Nikita Kurbanov added 12 while Cory Higgins had 11 for CSKA. Sasha Vezenkov led Barcelona with 14 points. Tyrese Rice added 10 for the hosts. CSKA broke the game early in a historic first quarter, in which the guests did everything right to get a 25-point lead, 4-29. In so doing, CSKA held Barcelona to its lowest-scoring quarter ever in EuroLeague play and gave the hosts their worst losing margin in any EuroLeague quarter of the 1,300-plus that Barcelona has played - more than any other club - this century. Using that cushion, CSKA kept a 24-48 margin at the break, forcing Barcelona into 11 turnovers and limiting its opponents to 3-of-20 three-point shooting (15%). CSKA dished 13 assists, collected seven steals and hit 16-of-24 two-point shots (66.6%) to break the game open. Nothing changed in the second half, as CSKA kept a double-digit margin all the way until the final buzzer.

CSKA held Barcelona scoreless in the opening 4 minutes. Meanwhile, a layup by Kurbanov ignited a 0-11 run that De Colo capped with back-to-back fast break baskets. Ante Tomic stepped up with a jump hook that De Colo bettered with a triple. Vitor Faverani took over with a tip-in but Milos Teodosic struck twice from downtown in a 0-13 run which he capped with a free throw to break the game open, 4-29, at the end of the first quarter. Vezenkov hit a triple and Rice added a fastbreak layup but De Colo and James Augustine kept CSKA fully in charge, 9-33. Teodosic scored off a steal, Andrey Vorontsevich nailed a three-pointer and a driving layup by Aaron Jackson made it a 25-point game, 15-40. Vezenkov took over with 6 unanswered points and Xavier Munford hit a triple but Kurbanov had back-to-back layups and De Colo copied him right after that for a 24-48 CSKA margin at halftime. Rice tried to ignite Barcelona's comeback with a corner three-pointer right after the break. Alex Renfroe joined the three-point shootout and Rice buried another one, but they didn't find much help around. Meanwhile, Kurbanov and Kyle Hines kept CSKA way ahead, 33-54. Brad Oleson scored in penetration and Victor Claver added a triple to get Bacelona a bit closer, 38-56. Jackson and Vorontsevich knocked down consecutive three-pointers but Petteri Koponen and Moussa Diagne kept Barcelona within 47-66 after 30 minutes. Vorontsevich, Koponen and Higgins each hit a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter and a backdoor layup by De Colo sealed the outcome, 50-74, with 6 minutes left. Barcelona kept trying but CSKA cruised to a well-deserved road win.

Nando De Colo - CSKA Moscow - EB16
Friday, March 3, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; LATISEVS, OLEGS; MAJKIC, MARIO
Attendance: 5088
By Quarter1234
FC Barcelona Lassa4202314
CSKA Moscow29191819
End of Quarter1234
FC Barcelona Lassa4244761
CSKA Moscow29486685
FC Barcelona Lassa
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MUNFORD, XAVIER 6:26 3   1/3   1   1 1 1 2         2
2 RICE, TYRESE 26:33 10 2/6 2/7         2 1 3     2 1  
10 CLAVER, VICTOR 13:32 5 1/3 1/2     1 1   1 2       2 4
13 FAVERANI, VITOR 4:05 2 1/1     1 1 2           1   3
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 26:28 14   3/6 5/6   4 4 2 1         4 21
20 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 8:37     0/2   1   1   1       2   -2
21 DIAGNE, MOUSSA 16:03 7 3/3   1/2 2 3 5     1     4 2 8
24 OLESON, BRAD 20:14 4 2/3 0/3   1 3 4 1   1     2 1 3
25 KOPONEN, PETTERI 23:04 9   3/8   1   1 3 1 3     3 4 7
32 RENFROE, ALEX 23:57 5 1/5 1/3   1 2 3 2 1 2     2 1 2
33 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 11:09   0/1 0/2         2   1       1 -1
44 TOMIC, ANTE 19:52 2 1/4     1 3 4 1   3 1   3 3 2
Team           2 1 3     2         1
Totals 200:00 61 11/26 11/36 6/8 11 18 29 14 7 20 1 0 19 19 50
        42.3% 30.6% 75%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
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
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 DE COLO, NANDO 24:42 21 9/14 1/2     3 3 4 2 3     2 2 21
4 TEODOSIC, MILOS 22:43 9 1/1 2/4 1/1   1 1 6 2 5     2 1 10
5 AUGUSTINE, JAMES 16:13 4 2/4     1 3 4 1 1       1   7
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 9:59     0/3     1 1           2 1 -3
9 JACKSON, AARON 25:00 7 1/2 1/2 2/2   4 4 6   2     2 2 13
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 4:27     0/1                   1   -2
19 FREELAND, JOEL 5:39 1 0/1   1/2 1 1 2 1 1         2 5
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 17:28 9   3/4     1 1 2 1       3 1 10
22 HIGGINS, CORY 23:32 11 3/6 1/1 2/2 1 5 6 1   1   1 2 4 15
31 KHRYAPA, VICTOR 18:05 8 3/5 0/1 2/3 1 3 4 3 4 1       3 17
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 14:04 12 5/5   2/2 1 1 2 1 1 1     2 1 14
42 HINES, KYLE 18:08 3 1/2   1/2 2   2     2     2 2 1
Team           1 3 4               4
Totals 200:00 85 25/40 8/18 11/14 8 26 34 25 12 15 0 1 19 19 112
        62.5% 44.4% 78.6%
Head coach: ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

Head Coaches

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
FC Barcelona Lassa
"One more tough night for us this season. We played against the champions and should have played really well tonight if we wanted to compete. The first quarter was a disaster. I can say that, for me, the problem is mental. We hesitate in every situation, we don't execute and don't play without any kind of confidence. CSKA has great talent, made a big difference and the game was over from the first quarter. We tried to compete after that, but for this level, it is not enough. We are not consistent, not stable, have many ups and downs and turn the ball over 20 times per game. This EuroLeague is very tough for us with all the things that happened to us this year. Some players had to take one step forwards but did not have the experience to do that. Congratulations to CSKA, they played excellent. The truth is that we are Barcelona and have to win and compete everywhere, and at the same time, this season, use our young players. It is difficult to compete everywhere with very young, unexperienced players. This is a realistic approach to Barcelona this season. Of course, there is the emotional approach. I understand some of our fans, they want Barcelona to win every game, but the realistic approach, and whoever knows a little bit about basketball will understand, is that we have a team with which it is very difficult to compete with the first four teams in the ranking. Sometimes you can see the body language of our players and some of them - experienced, smart players - feel the pressure right now. It is obvious if you see their body language. We can't compete against CSKA with the team we have but we are not the team that you saw in the first quarter. Our experienced players obviously hesitate and I am trying to support them. It is not easy for anybody in the team right now but I am trying to be supportive, every time."
ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"Congratulations to my team. Obviously, we opened the game really good, offensively and defensively. We picked up from there and continued to have the lead, playing good basketball. We lost the second and third quarter but still had a big difference and continued playing the same way: players are not robots. Congratulations to the team, this is a good victory. We dominated most elements of the game and it is shown in the index ranking difference, 49 to 111. To be continued. Definitely, the difference is not that (25 points in the first quarter), to be honest. Barcelona has quality and good players, and they have played very good games here and on the road. Obviously, we had some good defenses where we put them in trouble: they had seven turnovers in the first quarter. We shot 70% from two-point range and 75% from three. It gives you an idea of our confidence. The quality difference between both teams is not 25 points. As for Barcelona, they also came into this game wanting to win. The fight for the playoffs is still open and we don't know which teams will make it to be sixth, seventh and eighth positions. They had the motivation to play this game but we were much better, very mobile and opened the game very seriously. We hit some good shots and forced them into seven turnovers. I would say that we played simple and this simplicity worked on our favor."

Players

OLESON, BRAD
FC Barcelona Lassa
"It was a great first quarter for them and a terrible one for us. It was very bad, very terrible on our part. It was very, very difficult to come back from a 25-point deficit. We have to change this somehow and there is only one way. We have to fight in every game and try to win. We have to fight, that is the main thing, and we didn't fight in the first quarter tonight. We turned the ball over too much and didn't make fouls."
CLAVER, VICTOR
FC Barcelona Lassa
"They had a great start, especially on defense, switching at all positions. It was hard for us to find good scoring options and they ran the floor really well, getting many uncontested layups and easy baskets. After that, it was very difficult to recover. We cannot think about anything but the next game. We have to make the most of it and avoid thinking how many options we or our opponents have (to reach the playoffs)."
HINES, KYLE
CSKA Moscow
"We had a great first quarter. This is one of the things we wanted to try to change: go out there and have a strong start on the road. We did it tonight. We had a great defensive first quarter but also great balance on offense. We didn't necessarily have a great second and third quarter, but we were able to keep a big lead. We are getting better and better. We have to finish the regular season strong and get ready for the bigger and more important games."
DE COLO, NANDO
CSKA Moscow
"I believe that the first quarter has made the difference in this game. We lost the second and third quarters, but the most important thing is how we played tonight. We played as a team and started the game with great aggressiveness. That allowed us to get a road win in Barcelona, against a team that wants to show they still have chances to advance. Now we have to carry on working hard because every game is important. We have to carry on because the playoffs are around the corner."
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