Moscow’s CSKA defeated Moscow’s MBA on the road, 82–65 (25–14, 30–11, 13–22, 14–18).
Main Story
CSKA took a commanding lead right from the start. The home team tried to even out the game, but their attempts to run the floor, play aggressive defense, and rotate players frequently (all 12 MBA players saw action in the first 7-plus minutes) were unsuccessful. CSKA had already built a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter, and by halftime, the gap between the teams had widened to 30 points—55–25.
Sergey Voznyuk’s players came out more motivated for the second half. The MBA players stepped up their defense and offense and managed to nearly halve their deficit. But the game never really became a close contest. The more-than-comfortable lead CSKA had built in the first 20 minutes of play allowed the Army team to secure a confident victory.
X-Factor
The MBA players committed a total of 25 turnovers in this game (every player on the team had at least one). The high number of turnovers was one of the main reasons why the nominal home team was unable to put up an even fight against CSKA.
Interesting Fact
CSKA has never lost to MBA in a VTB League game. For the red-and-blues, today’s victory marked their 15th win in this Moscow derby.
MBA committed 25 turnovers in this game. This is their worst performance of the current VTB League season. In the previous championship, MBA’s record for turnovers was 23. It’s also worth noting CSKA’s 17 steals (last season, the Army Men’s record was 15 steals).
Press Conference
MBA Head Coach Sergey Voznyuk:
– From the very first seconds, CSKA dictated the pace; the Army team had complete control. We couldn’t keep up in the first and second quarters—CSKA was far superior, and we had no chance to take the initiative. We turned the ball over a lot and couldn’t make shots; we have to give credit to our opponent, who controlled the game. After halftime, we found our rhythm and gradually started to get back on track. The game lasts 40 minutes, and the fact that we won two quarters in the second half isn’t enough against CSKA. 25 turnovers is way too many. We need to learn from this and correct our mistakes. At times in the second half, we showed what we wanted to do. We don’t want to make excuses or downplay the fact that we have a lot of injured players. We need to be patient and fight for every possession.
CSKA Head Coach Andreas Pistiolis:
– First and foremost, I want to thank our fans. It was an away game, but we could really feel their support. We played a great first half, but at the same time, we’re CSKA, and we can’t be satisfied with just 20 minutes of good play. We need to be better and play with more focus; we need to show our style of basketball throughout the entire game. We talked at halftime about how we needed to play as if the score were 0–0, that we needed to look even better. It turned out differently. Can I say that Kirill Elatontsev has already settled in? It’s fair to say that both Kirill and the entire team can play better. Realistically, I knew that he wouldn’t be able to fully adapt right away in just one month. We believe in our players; we’ll keep working and fighting. Will there be more transfers? Anything is possible—and impossible—at the same time. Maybe we’ll sign someone, or maybe we won’t.
Top Performers
MBA: Vladislav Trushkin (15), Daniil Pevnev (11 + 6 rebounds), Alexander Khomenko (11)
CSKA: Livio Jean-Charles (16 + 7 rebounds), Melo Trimble (15 + 6 assists), Ivan Ukhov (14 + 6 rebounds), Samson Ruzhentsev (13 + 6 rebounds)
Up next
MBA: October 3, away against Lokomotiv-Kuban
CSKA: October 7, at home against Uralmash.
