CSKA surged in the second half to a 98-74 (24-22, 23-26, 34-12, 17-14) win over Parma in Moscow.
Top Scorers
CSKA: Dmitry Kulagin (18), Milos Teodosic (16), Vitaly Fridzon (13), Aaron Jackson (12)
Parma: Danilo Andjusic (14), Konstantin Bulanov (12), Nikolai Zhmako (10)
Turning Point
Parma enjoyed a stunning one-point lead at halftime, blitzing CSKA’s defense to the tune of 48 points.
A bit sluggish, at least on the defensive end, after Friday’s win over Real in the Euroleague, CSKA needed a spark. They got it from Semyon Antonov and Vitaly Fridzon who connected on three consecutive 3’s to open the half.
The Army Men blew the game completely open midway through the 3rd quarter, draining eight straight free throws in a 10-0 run that made it a 16-point advantage (70-54).
Parma never threatened again, dropping a 24-point decision on the road.
Stat
48 – CSKA gave a up a season-high 48 points in the first half to Parma. The Army Men are the only undefeated team remaining in the League, but the wear and tear of an expanded Euroleague schedule catches up to CSKA at times.
Despite the 2nd-half collapse, Parma has to be pleased with its first-half performance.
Star
Dmitry Kulagin. The 24-year-old Russian guard scored a season-high 18 points to go with four assists and zero turnovers. With Nando De Colo sitting out today’s game, CSKA needed a solid performance from its back-up.
Quotes
CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
– Congratulations to the team on another win. We didn’t have much energy at the beginning. We clearly weren’t at our level in the 1st and 2nd quarters. Naturally, we wanted to spread out the playing time. Nobody played more than 24 minutes on the court. With all respect to Parma, who competed hard, we needed to look at the big picture. It’s only been a little more than 30 hours since a tough game on Friday. Against Real, we decided the outcome in the 2nd quarter, which we won, 32-12. This time, we did it in the 3rd quarter, 34-12. We’ll learn from this. We got a lot of direct and indirect feedback on what we need to fix in this game.
Parma head coach Viacheslav Shushakov:
– We talked about who we were playing and how they’d won all these titles. It was important to test ourselves against the best team in Europe. I think the guys got it and showed for two quarters that they can play at that level. In the 3rd quarter, CSKA played much better on defense and offense and shifted the momentum in the game. We’ll think about how to avoid similar collapses in the future.
Up Next
CSKA: November 21 at Kalev
Parma: November 20 vs. Tsmoki-Minsk
Snapshot
