CSKA won its last game at home on the group stage of the Euroleague. Unicaja was beaten with the score 76-70. There are only two other teams in the league that can repeat the record. They are Fortitudo and Efes Pilsen. But both of the teams are for sure unable to get as much wins as CSKA does in general as with only one game left the Army club has 13-0 balance and the rivals from the Group A have 10-2.
The best scorer on CSKA side was Marcus Brown with 21 points, J.R. Holden added 17 and Antonio Granger – 12.
CSKA vs Unicaja: 76-70
The game was not an easy walk for CSKA. Unicaja started with playing fast game with an aggressive defence. The Army club was ready for this kind of play, but none of the rivals could get some worth to mention advantage. CSKA maximum lead in the first half was just 3 points and in the middle of the second quarter the club was loosing by 4.
The situation changed in the 3rd quarter. Unicaja was not ready to stop2 3-pointers in a row from Antonio Granger. David Andersen and Martin Muursepp also took part in the run that turned the score from 40-38 to 50-38 with 5.38 to go in the quarter. And then came Marcus Brown… The American finished the first half with only 6 points archieved. In just a 3 minutes in the 3rd quarter he scored 12 while all the Unicaja players were able to answer only with 7.
The period was finished with CSKA 16 points ahead of Unicaja. In the beginning of the 4th quarter the Army club started to loose concentration. But Unicaja simply missed time to become the leader once more or to win the game in general. J.R. Holden was the man of the period he scored 8 out of 10 last CSKA points.
CSKA head coach Dusan Ivkovic:
- It was a tough game. Unicaja is a very good team that has prepared well for the game and has shown good reading of the game. It was one really balanced and controlled game. In the first half we made several mistakes and let the team from Spain to score easy points. In the third quarter the game control was ona very high level. We turned the advantage to 16 points. Then Unicaja has shown good face and could shut our margin. I am satisfied with this game. Now we need games like this. From tomorrow on we continue our practices to prepare to the game against Dynamo Moscow.
Unicaja head coach Sergio Scariolo:
- It was a really tough game. We hold good first half and were bad in the first 5 minutes of the second. Then we started to recover but did not have enough time finally. CSKA really is a great game. They have two superstars Holden and Brown both are very good defenders 1-1. If you want to beat CSKA you must limit them. You must not make mistakes in the offense. If you do, then you receive fast breaks. They were very good in defense for the most part of the game.
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