CSKA beat UNICS at home – 102:86 (21:24, 33:24, 25:18, 23:20).
Top scorers
CSKA: Will Clyburn (24 + 5 assists), Daniel Hackett (16), Ivan Ukhov (16 + 5 assists), Johannes Voigtmann (11 + 11 rebounds + 7 assists).
UNICS: Isaiah Canaan (18), Jordan Morgan (13), John Brown III (12 + 5 rebounds + 5 assists).
Story
CSKA (14-5) and UNICS (15-4) are fighting for second place in standings. Kazan approached one of the most important games of the regular season with 10-game winning streak that started after December’s loss to CSKA.
The start was in Kazan’s favor, they hit 4 long-range bombs, after Pavel Sergeev’s three the guests were up by 19:10. CSKA managed to cut the gap quickly. Ivan Ukhov scored 5 points inspiring 11:5 run by the end of the quarter, 24:21 in guests’ favor.
CSKA approached the game with the best 3-point percentage in the League and used it in the second quarter. The Red-Blues took over the game hitting 6 long-range shots in 10 minutes, 4 of them were made by Will Clyburn. The Forward was red hot and scored 22 point in the first half alone. CSKA hit 61% of three-point attempts and 59% of field goals. By the half time CSKA were leading – 54:48.
CSKA continued to increase the lead in the third. UNICS got in foul trouble quickly, thus the hosts via accurate free throws gained double digit lead for the first time. Johannes Voigtmann finished the successful period for CSKA – 79:66 before the final quarter.
Key moment
The fourth quarter started with CSKA’s 4:0 mini-run and Dimitrios Priftis’ ejection for 2 technical fouls. Without head coach, UNICS couldn’t take over the game. CSKA made it to victory calmly, via this win CSKA outpaced UNICS in standings and took 2nd place.
Hero
Johannes Voigtmann. The German big was useful on both ends of the floor. In 24 minutes Voigtmann scored 11 points, 11 rebounds (career-high repeat) and 7 assists (career-high).
Stat
10 games – the length of UNICS winning streak that was broken in the game against CSKA. The latest defeat UNICS took was always from CSKA in December 2020.
Comments
CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
– We were focused on basketball, played aggressive, I liked my team’s attitude and aggressivity. We never gave up even being minus-9, we kept fighting, stayed on the same page and created good things. I enjoyed the game, all coaches enjoyed it and I think the fans enjoy it as well as they see the team fighting, no matter who we have in front of you. And we had very respectful opponent, EuroLeague-level team, EuroCup contender, UNICS is one of our rivals. I really enjoy coaching this team. The fight that we have in us, competitiveness. Because, you know, playing hard is something that you need to have for this level. But to play hard and compete are two different things. Today we played hard and compete. This is our spirit, this is what it means to play for CSKA. Congratulations to the team, we beat very good opponent dominantly I may say. The difference is not the one that they may have, they lacked their point guards, but we also faced a lot of problems, adversities. We overcame. Thanks to my team. They deserve all the credit.
UNICS head coach assistant Thomas Nikou:
– We started the game really good. We were really competitive against strong and tough opponent, but we were losing power minute-by-minute because we are missing some significant players and we were coming off very difficult game two days ago, our energy was going lower and lower. We gave up space, we didn’t follow our plan because we were tired. Progressively CSKA found good rhythm and punished us easily – accordingly to the result. But we fought. We are satisfied with our guys, we keep going. Congratulations to CSKA, it’s a really good team, we hope they go further and further.
Next
CSKA: April 5 @ Zenit
UNICS: April 3 @ Enisey
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