CSKA vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv: 76-72 (+4)
CSKA: Bolomboy (5 + 7 rb + 2 st), Hilliard (7 + 5 rb), Hackett (4 + 4 rb + 2 as + 2 st + 3 to), Shengelia (8 + 12 rb + 3 as + 4 pf), Kurbanov (5 + 4 rb + 2 as) – start; Khomenko (DNP), James (25 + 3 as), Ukhov (0), Voigtmann (3 + 3 rb), Clyburn (19 + 2 bs), Lopatin (DNP)…
Maccabi: Wilbekin (20 + 4 rb + 5 as + 3 st), Caloiaro (2 + 2 as), Hunter (2 + 4 rb + 4 pf), Dorsey (16 + 5 rb + 2 as + 3 to), Zizic (13 + 9 rb) – start; Bryant (6 + 3 rb), Jones (4 + 3 as), Cohen (0), Blayzer (4 pf), Bender (9 + 4 rb), Alber (DNP), Atias (DNP)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Obviously, congratulations to the team. It was a close fight. I think we gave the tone to the game from the very beginning and we controlled the game with exception of one stretch when Maccabi went up by 5. In this close game we managed to take 7-8-point lead, but they were able to come back into the game. It was an interesting game, I think the fans enjoyed it, it featured a lot of tactics. Maccabi went big in the beginning, putting Caloiaro at 3. Our targets were to play on the block and perimeter. In the first half we missed open shots after Mike was doubled and made good passes. We knew we gonna make shots, and we made 8 three-pointers in the second half. If Will made those dunk it would be a different game but he made up for his miss, he has enough character to make a tough isolation shot against Othello Hunter. But we had many players who played well in the clutch – Mike, Nikita, Joel, Toko. Joel played like he is a sized center with great versatility. When Maccabi was up 5 I liked my team not going wild, making good stops, creating shots. Sometimes we were forced to make Mike attack, but we had good spacing. It was an important win, especially with 3 significant players out. The others kept believing and covered the absences. It was great to be back at Mega, to have our fans cheering for us, I want to thank them. Hopefully, pandemic goes away and we have fans in bigger numbers.
