Ni Shengelia, ni James ni Voigtmann. Baskonia’s executioner in Moscow was another former, American Darrun Hilliard, which ended the match with 31 points and a PIR of 32. The reaction of the Alava players had merit, who were losing by 15 points in the 35th minute and then managed to tie the commitment on two occasions when the game came to an end.
The crash started mediated by two sensitive casualties in CSKA: neither Strelnieks nor James could dress short. But the list of players on the Russian team is endless and, with Hackett and Clyburn at the helm, Itoudis was able to cope with complications. The young Khomenko also helped.
To allay suspicions, the first basket of the match was signed by Shengelia. The warning was obvious: “don’t count on me at all even though I’ve been with the Vitoria team for six seasons.” In just 3 minutes, the Muscovites had already 9 points. In the first 4, the only Baskonia player who had seen a hoop was the Lithuanian Giedraitis. That streak was broken by Vildoza with a triple to the board. At minute 5, the ratings were 23 / -3.
Fall’s exit to the court made things difficult for the Slavs. Milutinov could not with the French giant and the Greek coach decided to change the pairing and leave it to Voigtmann. Baskonia charged very quickly with fouls and CSKA took advantage of it from the free kick. In the 7th minute of the game, TD Systems had 1 rating point among the entire team. A good end of the quarter made up the result a bit.
He protagonist of the second period was another ex-Baskonist: Hilliard, who nailed 4 3-pointers of 4 attempts before the break. Khomenko played without complexes and was about to force an unsportsmanlike action from Sedekerskis, who stood out on the defensive rebound because he was very attentive to the rejections. Shortly after finishing that delivery, Hackett had 12 points and Hilliard, 18. The second quarter ended with a dunk from Toko Shengelia. The maximum until then in favor of the Russians was +13 with 39-26.
Shengelia, of course, opened the scoring in the third phase of the match. An exasperating Henry ended up sucking on the bench which allowed Kurucs add more minutes than usual. Giedraitis took the third foul in minute 22. But the great protagonist was still Fall, with 14 points and 4 rebounds with 6 minutes remaining in the fourth. Hilliard, extremely inspired, reacted to all of Baskonia’s comeback attempts. Clyburn also helped his. A triple from the center of the field by Hilliard -then annulled- showed the state of form of the former player of the Vitoria team. At the end of the third installment, Ivanovic’s men had 20 losses, 6 of them from Pierrià Henry.
CSKA handled comfortable differences of between 10 and 14 points and he felt in control of the situation. But with 77-62 he already broke that ceiling and was confident. He lowered the defensive tension, began to play too individual in attack and saw how Baskonia was on him with a Henry, now yes, very involved. TD Systems tied the clash at 82 and 84 but Clyburn and the star of the night finished the job. Vildoza was able to tie the game again with a very forced lateral triple and, then, Giedraitis missed two shots from the basket. The match ended with a ball control of Darrun Hilliard making a transition from his field to the rival zone with absolute ease, letting the seconds pass. A demon for the people of Vitoria.
89 – CSKA Moscú (23 + 24 + 19 +23): Hackett (16), Hilliard (31), Kurbanov (2), Shengelia (12) y Milutinov (7) -cinco inicial-, Bolomboy (-), Voigtmann (2), Khomenko (7), Antonov (-) y Clyburn (12).
86 – TD Systems Baskonia (16 + 19 + 23 + 28): Henry (17), Dragic (3), Giedraitis (10), Polonara (8) and Jekiri (-) -starting five-, Vildoza (13), Sedekerskis (-), Diop (-), Fall (19), Peters (-) and Kurucs (3).
Referees: Mateu Boltauzer (Slovenia), Jakub Zamojski (Polish) and Eduard Udyanskyy (England). Without eliminated.
Incidents: match corresponding to the eighth day of the Euroleague played before 2,745 spectators at the Megasport Arena in Moscow.
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