CSKA Moscow defeated Enisey Krasnoyarsk on the road, 87-72 (22-11, 31-14, 23-24, 11-23).
Top Scorers
Enisey: Denis Zakharov (14), Suleiman Braimoh (12), Anthony Hilliard (11), Octavius Ellis (10+5 reb)
CSKA: Cory Higgins (14+6 reb), Vitaly Fridzon (13), Othello Hunter (12+8 reb), Nando De Colo (11)
Story
The Army Men were unstoppable in the opening 20 minutes. Any thought of an upset quickly evaporated with the visitors seizing a 13-point lead late in the 1st quarter. Sergio Rodriguez led the way in his CSKA debut, scoring eight points in the first six minutes, including a pair of 3-pointers.
CSKA’s defense also impressed, limiting Enisey to 25 points in the first half. Up 53-25 at halftime, the Army Men were able to cruise the rest of the way to a season-opening win. Krasnoyarsk cut the deficit to 15 in the 4th quarter, but it was too little too late.
Both Enisey coach Oleg Okulov and CSKA coach Dimitris Itoudis were liberal with substitutions. All 24 men on the game rosters saw action with Krasnoyarsk guard Denis Zakharov playing a game-high 24:30.
Suleiman Show
Stat
8 – Perhaps not surprisingly, a total of eight players from both teams finished in double digits.
Quotes
Enisey head coach Oleg Okulov:
– Unfortunately, our team has only had two practices with a full roster. Someone was always missing because of an injury. Today, we didn’t play our best defense. A lot of our players weren’t playing as a team. We also didn’t demonstrate team-oriented offense and lost the rebounding battle in the first half.
We have a lot to think about, then it’s time to work. We’ll keep helping the players understand what’s expected of them. We’ll work and get better. That’s our plan.
CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
– I want to congratulate my team on the win. It’s very important to begin with a win. To be honest, we saw two very different pictures today between the first and second halves. I didn’t expect we would play as well in the first half, because we don’t have enough team chemistry yet. We really need everyone to get comfortable with each other. We’re only beginning to implement our system and the players need to work together. We stopped in the second half. Of course, Enisey started to play better, but after the game we recognized there is still a lot of work to do. Good luck to Enisey in the VTB League and Champions League.
Up Next
Enisey: October 14 at Avtodor
CSKA: October 8 at Astana
Snapshot
