CSKA loses a friendly

CSKA vs Spartak (St. Petersburg): 84-92

In the second friendly game, the CSKA «selection» roster was a bit short. Ilya Astafev and Nikita Shabalkin had to miss the sparring session with Spartak due to an official game for the CSKA Reserves, who met VGIPA from Nizhegorod. The rest of the Army team’s «reserves» were moved into the main rotation by the coaching staff. The Petersburg squad, by the way, also had only 10 players.

The visitors came out a little disoriented. Using the Spartak easy misses, CSKA, by the middle of the first quarter, went ahead by six points (10-4 after a long shot by Sheiko). Kovalenko took a time-out. The Spartak head coach was able to calm his players down, and the Petersburg player began to play smarter. The Army team grabbed their largest lead with 3 minutes to go in the first quarter as Padius handled his opponents effectively under the basket changing hands and laying the ball in off the glass for a 14-6 lead. The visitors used the remaining time to successfully snatch the initiative. With the score 14-11 (after a 3-pointer from Maltsev), Holden turned the ball over, and Silant’ev made a layin while drawing a foul, bringing the score to 14-14. He put Spartak ahead after a time-out by Ivkovic. Two missed long-distance shots by Padius and Ugolkov cost CSKA two
more points, as Evgeniy Kisurin won the battle for the rebound and put it in to bring the score to 14-18. At the end of the quarter, the teams left the floor with a minimal difference in the score – Andrey Sheyko hit his second 3-ball at the buzzer – 19-20.

For the entire first half of the second period, the Army team played catch-up. The matchup between Holden and Kuzyakin didn’t exactly give either team a decisive advantage on the scoreboard. They young Spartak guard played headily when he went behind the back with the ball and blew by Evgeniy Pashutin to lay the ball in for a 27-30 Spartak lead. That margin remained while CSKA’s new man in the paint – Victor Alexander – remained inactive under the basket. Having set their defense against the taller Spartak players, CSKA closed out the quarter with two straight 3-pointers from Padius and Holden to put them up 43-35.

Furthermore, in the early minutes of the second half CSKA couldn’t build upon this momentum. Spartak went on an 8-0 run and once again threatened CSKA’s chances of winning. The score was tied 79-79 with 8 minutes left in the game as Alexander allowed two misses under the opponents’ basket. Poltavskiy’s next 5 points forced the CSKA coach to take a time out. It wasn’t worth it to start fouling, as the Spartak confidently dropped the free-throws, and the home team’s long-distance shots were too forced to be accurate.