CSKA beat UNICS at home — 92:79 (21:23, 21:17, 29:20, 21:19).
The best scorers
CSKA: Nikola Milutinov (24 + 12 rebounds), Dallas Moore (21), Alexey Shved (20 + 5 rebounds + 7 assists), Casper Ware (12)
UNICS: Nenad Dmitrijevic (18 + 6 assists), Viacheslav Zaitsev (15), Vince Hunter (12 + 6 rebounds + 4 steals), Louis Labeyrie (10 + 6 rebounds)
Game progress
The leaders of the season entered the Game of the Week without losses — with 8 wins in 8 games.
The opponents immediately approved the status of the game. There was an equal game and no one had advantage. CSKA focused on the pressure in the paint, where Nikola Milutinov ruled as usual and Casper Ware tested UNICS defense with high-speed drives. The guests held on due to long-range shots – already in the first minutes, 3 UNICS players scored three-pointers. At the end of the first quarter, the Kazan team made a mini-run: they responded to Dallas Moore three-pointer with 7 points and finished the first quarter as the leader – 23:21.
The second quarter started again with a three-pointer from the guests, but Dallas Moore helped the Army team stopped UNICS courage. And the active game with the leader change began again. Before the halftime, CSKA even led by 5 points, but the Kazan team did not give up, focusing on defense and scored. But Alexey Shved scored the last three-pointer in the first half – 42:40.
The beginning of the third quarter was disappointing for the guests. Milutinov and Ware made a 7:0 run and CSKA got the biggest lead at that time – 49:40. UNICS quickly recovered and tried to pursuit, but the Army team already had the lead. Anton Astapkovich three-pointer, Milutinov putback – and now UNICS trailed more than by 10 points for the first time in this game. Emil Rajkovic team held a double-digit lead until the end of the third quarter – 71:60.
The key moment
During the fourth quarter, CSKA confidently kept the game under control. Only at the end of the quarter, the Army team noticeably slowed down, allowing UNICS to revive the intrigue a little bit with Viacheslav Zaitsev actions, which helped UNICS to reduce the difference to 8 points. But Velimir Perasovic team had no time left – Alexey Shved destroyed the guests chances to go into tense ending and in the last seconds the fans saw a historic Nikola Milutinov first three-pointer in the United League!
With nine wins, CSKA single-handedly topped the standings and UNICS had the first loss of the season.
Hero
Nikola Milutinov. The MVP of October made it clear that he was not going to limit himself. He got 20 points and 10 rebounds once again with domination in the paint (6 offensive rebounds), scored second chance points and at the end he scored his second three-pointer as CSKA player and the first in the United League.
Numbers
65 points were scored by CSKA super trio – Nikola Milutinov, Alexey Shved and Dallas Moore coming off the bench. All of them score more than 20 points.
What’s next
CSKA: home game against Pari Nizhny Novgorod on November 14
UNICS: home game against PARMA-PARI on November 14
