2017-18Regular SeasonRound 1
CSKA Moscow 93
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan 84
October 12, 2017 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

CSKA rallies past AX Milan for its 10th straight home win

CSKA Moscow trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, but took control in the second to beat AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan 93-84 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season opener for both sides. The victory was also the 10th in a row for CSKA in the Russian capital. Milan passed well and shot even better to lead 38-48 at halftime, but Cory Higgins scored 9 of his game-high 21 points to erase that deficit in the third quarter and Nando De Colo scored 13 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Sergio Rodriguez shined with 20 points in his CSKA debut and fellow CSKA newcomer posted 15 points, 12 rebounds and 3 steals in helping the Russian champs outrebound the visitors 34-24. Andrew Goudelock paced Milan with 17 points, Vlado Micov scored 16, Arturas Gudaitis posted 15 and Dairis Bertans 14.

The first basket of the season was the product of two well-known players as former MVP De Colo drove the lane and fed former Best Defender Kyle Hines. Milan connected on four shots from outside – including a pair of threes by Micov, to take a 4-11 lead. The margin was double figures when Amath M'Baye became the third Milan player to connect from downtown and the visitors remained red hot on offense to lead 16-30 after 10 minutes. Goudelock pushed the margin to 16 with the first basket of the second quarter. Rodriguez caught fire for CSKA and carried the hosts to within 35-41, but Milan continued to pour in points and Bertans’s layup on the halftime buzzer made it 38-48.

Higgins came out strong for the second half; he scored 8 points in five minutes, including a slam that gave CSKA its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, 51-50. Milan regained a small lead, but Clyburn’s steal and layup sent CSKA into the deciding quarter with a 65-64 edge. The lead change hands with each of the first four baskets of the fourth quarter and the twice more through free throws. Then CSKA made it move with a lineup featuring three point guards – De Colo, Rodriguez and Leo Westermann. That trio combined for 9 points in an 11-2 run that put the hosts up 80-72. De Colo drew his ninth foul of the game, which sent Gudaitis to the bench with 5 fouls, and extended the margin to 9 with the resulting 2 free throws. The De Colo/Rodriguez duo proceeded to put the game and ice as CSKA started the season on a winning note.

Nando De Colo - CSKA Moscow - EB17
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: PUKL,SASA; GKONTAS, SPIROS; HORDOV, TOMISLAV
Attendance: 7233
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow16222728
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan30181620
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow16386593
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan30486484
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 21:04 19 6/11 0/1 7/7   1 1 2 1 3     2 10 22
7 FRIDZON, VITALY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 WESTERMANN, LEO 13:37 3 0/1 1/3         1   1     3 1 -2
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 7:37           1 1 1         2    
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 29:46 20 4/12 4/8   1 4 5 4   2   1 3   11
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY 7:29     0/1         1   1         -1
21 CLYBURN, WILL 37:28 15 3/7 2/2 3/4 3 9 12 2 3 1     3 5 28
22 HIGGINS, CORY 25:35 21 9/12 1/2   2 2 4 2 2     1 4 1 21
31 KHRYAPA, VICTOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 17:24 4     4/4   1 1 1 2 2 1   2 3 8
42 HINES, KYLE 15:23 6 2/3   2/2 1 2 3   1     1 2 3 9
44 HUNTER, OTHELLO 24:37 5 2/4   1/2 6 1 7 3 1 2   1 2 3 11
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 93 26/50 8/17 17/19 15 22 37 17 10 12 1 4 23 26 110
        52% 47.1% 89.5%
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
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 GOUDELOCK, ANDREW 35:01 17 7/10 0/6 3/4 1 4 5 3 1 3 1   2 4 16
5 MICOV, VLADIMIR 38:25 16 3/6 2/4 4/4 1 4 5 3 2 2     2 5 22
9 KALNIETIS, MANTAS 12:30 3   1/2         4   1     3 1 3
13 FONTECCHIO, SIMONE 1:55                              
15 TARCZEWSKI, KALEB 20:52 7 3/4   1/2 4 2 6     4 2   5 4 8
22 CUSIN, MARCO 0:54       0/2                   1 -1
23 ABASS, AWUDU DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
24 M'BAYE, AMATH 21:42 5 1/2 1/3     3 3 1 2 1     3   4
25 THEODORE, JORDAN 26:32 7 2/7 1/3     1 1 6   1     3 1 4
34 JEFFERSON, CORY 2:02                              
45 BERTANS, DAIRIS 21:53 14 3/6 2/2 2/2   1 1 1         3 1 11
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 18:14 15 2/3   11/12 2 1 3   1   1 1 5 6 18
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 84 21/38 7/20 21/26 8 18 26 18 6 12 4 1 26 23 87
        55.3% 35% 80.8%
Head coach: PIANIGIANI, SIMONE

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"Big thank you for the attendance. Crowd was loud and supported the team. We started a new EuroLeague marathon. It was obvious we have a bad start in regard to our aggressiveness. Opponent did not help us at all, I would say. They were driving, kicking the ball, making the shots. We realized quickly how we are supposed to play the game and the level of physicality we need to have. They were giving us a lot of opportunities to play one-on-one, a lot of drives, a lot of opportunities to go in the paint, which you can see in the fewer number of our assists. But we managed to find a way with small ball. Will Clyburn played almost 40 minutes, and I have to apologize to him for that. He was an X-factor when we played small ball, to create situations, switch, rebound the ball. He had 12 rebounds. I never like to talk about one player, because it is a team win, and he is part of the team, but I have to mention it because of the big minutes he played. This is a win-win for us because of the way the win came. It required a lot of effort, especially on the defensive end. The partial score in the last three quarters was 77-54. Also, in the entire game we almost split rebounds under their basket, pulling down 15 offensive boards and they had 18 defensive rebounds. It was a team win, and congratulations to the team for starting EuroLeague with a victory. "
PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
"We played excellent in the first 20 minutes. We decided in the first part of the game to focus on defense and we pushed to a bad average of points. The game was under our control. It was very clear, I told my players at halftime that CSKA will come back. Every time you play a tough team like this the game changes in the second half. I asked only one thing from them about turnovers and we were not that good because it was one turnover in the first 20 minutes for us and 11 turnovers in the second half. There are some players that don’t have the same experience as cska and we know that everything is completely new for us, new coach, completely new team, so I can’t say anything bad about my players. We led for 30 minutes. At the same time we lost a chance, because we arrived to a close game in the fourth quarter. "

Players

RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO
CSKA Moscow
"At the start we were really bad, but I think we were trying to wait for them and see how they were going to play in the beginning. They played really good. After the first quarter we showed more pride, we were more intense and energetic. Our opponents’ game was not a surprise for us, it was the first game."
HIGGINS, CORY
CSKA Moscow
"I think we just came out too lazy and not aggressive, especially defensively. 30 points in the first quarter is a thing that never happened before. I was trying to bring energy in our game. At halftime we refocused and made the defensive effort."
DE COLO, NANDO
CSKA Moscow
"Tonight the most important thing is for sure the win. We have a new team with a lot of new players. We need to build our team and go day by day. That is most important right now. We need to get our rhythm. We already had two official VTB games, but we need more than that. The most important is what’s at the end of the season. For sure we need to win games, but we need to find our team spirit and how to play together. So the beginning was tough because defensively we were not together and we started doing better in the second half. "
MICOV, VLADIMIR
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
"We played hard and had a very good first half. We can keep our head up because the start is very promising, so we can build on the loss. But it was a good start overall. We were very determined and made them play 40 tough minutes to get a hard-earned win."
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