CSKA defeated Nizhny Novgorod on the road, 101-65 (26-17, 25-21, 28-17, 22-10).
Top Scorers
Nizhny Novgorod: Dijon Thompson (15+7 reb+5 ast), Petr Gubanov (15), Siim-Sander Vene (10)
CSKA: Cory Higgins (19), Vitaly Fridzon (15), Nikita Kurbanov (14), Dmitry Kulagin (13+5 reb+9 ast)
Build-Up
CSKA played an almost perfect 1st quarter in Barcelona on Friday, storming to a 29-4 lead. Though not quite as dominant to start Sunday’s game, CSKA knocked down 15 of 18 two-point field goals in the first half, while the visiting bench outscored Nizhny’s bench 34-0.
Not surprisingly, Moscow enjoyed terrific balance from top to bottom with Cory Higgins the only CSKA player in double digits in the opening 20 minutes.
Petr Gubanov and Dijon Thompson competed hard, but couldn’t stop the Red-Blue machine on their own. By halftime, CSKA enjoyed a 51-38 advantage.
Turning Point
Nizhny Novgorod suffered a big setback early in the 3rd quarter as starting point guard Kenny Boynton fouled out on a technical.
CSKA took advantage with a 12-2 run, including seven from Higgins. Leading by 20, the Army Men cruised to victory in the 4th quarter.
With the win, the Army Men remain atop the standings, while Nizhny Novgorod drops to 6-13, 2.5 games back of Enisey for the final playoff spot.
Stat
72 – number of points scored by the CSKA bench.
Quotes
Nizhny Novgorod head coach Arturs Stalbergs:
– The main challenge in today’s game was not turning the ball over on offense. We weren’t able to get it done. CSKA scored 17 points off turnovers in the first half. We were able to steadily cut the deficit to eight points, but Boynton’s technical decided everything, leaving us with only Sergei Marikhin at point guard. As you could see, we looked like a VTB Youth League team down the stretch.
CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
– I want to congratulate my team on another road win. From the opening minutes, we were able to smother Nizhny playmaker Kenny Boynton. Without him and injured guard Ivan Strebkov, our opponents had a tough time running the offense. We held to our plan for the entire game and I tried to spread out the playing time. I want to point out that we dished out almost 30 assists today and demonstrated solid team basketball.
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Up Next
Nizhny Novgorod: March 12 vs. Enisey
CSKA: March 12 at VEF
