CSKA Moscow defeated VEF Riga at home, 82-51 (23-8, 25-9, 17-19, 17-15).
Top Scorers
CSKA: Vitaly Fridzon (12), Mikhail Kulagin (12), Viktor Khryapa (12+5 ast), Semyon Antonov (7+10 reb)
VEF: Kristopher Richard (23), Martins Meiers (12), Abdul Gaddy (6 reb+9 ast)
Turning Point
Playing without leading scorer and captain, Janis Blums, VEF struggled to put the ball in the basket from the start.
CSKA opened the game on a 15-4 run, led by nine points from the Kulagin brothers, and never looked back. The Army Men would go up 35-8 midway through the 2nd quarter and held VEF to only 17 first-half points.
The visitors turned things around in the second half, battling to a 34-34 tie over the final 20 minutes, but never came close to erasing the early deficit.
CSKA improves to 8-1, the first team in the League to eight wins, while VEF drops to 4-5 (1-3 in its last four games).
Stat
8-34 – VEF shot 23.5% in the first half, including an 0-11 stretch at the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd quarter.
Playing against the reigning champs, the visitors had no chance with those types of numbers.
Quotes
CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
– Congratulations to the team on another win. Obviously, VEF didn’t have its leading scorer, Blums, while we tried to spread out the playing time and play with intensity. That worked better in the first than the second half. I want to thank the fans who supported us today. Cory could have played, but since he’s having trouble with his leg, we decided to leave him on the bench, if possible. That’s what happened.
VEF head coach Janis Gailitis:
– Congratulations to CSKA on the win. Obviously, we got off to a bad start. A lot of the guys looked lost taking the court against this type of opponent. The game opened up in the second half and things evened out a little. We were missing several players, especially Blums, because of injuries and illness. The guys from the youth team aren’t ready to play at this level yet. But I don’t want to use that as an excuse.
Up Next
CSKA: December 18 vs. Khimki
VEF: January 5 vs. Kalev
Snapshot
