Ural Great (Perm) – CSKA: 76-73
The Sports Palace Molot started to fill up an hour before tip-off. As expected, there wasn’t one empty seat in the house. The video before the game was memorable. The players’ highlights were set to the Queen song “We are the champions”. As good as CSKA has looked this season, undefeated season or not, the reigning Russian champion for the time being remains Ural-Great.
During the introductions the crowed gave a standing ovation to CSKA general director Sergey Kushchenko. Additionally, there was a warm reception for Sergey Panov. In the Perm tradition, he was introduced as Sergey Yuryevich, so as it turned out, there was no danger that he would get the kind of “warm” reception that Teodoros Papaloukas received in Greece.
CSKA center Aleksander Bashminov wasn’t able to take the floor against his former club. His injury in the ASVEL game, although it appeared to be not serious, prevented him from playing, as not enough time had passed since the injury to risk losing the center for a longer period of time should Bashminov take another blow to the ankle.
The first minute of the game was in favor of the Army club. Two baskets by Chatzivrettas put CSKA up 0-4. However, the situation quickly changed. With 4:28 left in the first quarter, CSKA head coach Dusan Ivkovic was forced to take a time-out. At that point the score was 13-8 in favor of Ural-Great, and Viktor Khryapa had to be replaced by Sergey Monya—the young forward picked up three quick fouls and didn’t get to play against his older brother Nikolay (Sergey Belov put him on the floor only in the second quarter). During the minute-long break, the Yugoslavian coach didn’t make any immediate adjustments like in the CSKA-ASVEL game, however he put the guard rotation back on order.
At the end of the first quarter, CSKA missed a chance to go ahead – 24-19. With 9 minutes until half, Monya dropped in a 3-pointer and evened the score 24-24. It should be noted that the Army team handled Ural Great’s leading scrorer Eddie Shannon. The American point-guard was shut down by his Army counterpart Holden. But J.R. didn’t get any breathing room either. The big matchup of the night was the battle of the forwards Darius Songaila and Estonian Martin Muursepp. Already in the early minutes it was clear that the disqualification and the stress resulting therefrom had no effect on the forward. In 15 minutes he collected 13 points and was then given a rest. With three minutes left in the half he went back on the floor and scored six more points before the halftime buzzer. Muursepp had his best game for the Perm club, helping the team on both ends of the floor.
The time-out taken by Ivkovic in the middle of the second quarter helped CSKA to get back into their offensive rhythm. The Army team went ahead and was able to close out the first half leading 35-43. But it was Ural Great’s own fault that the margin was so large. Over the course of the final minutes, the home team missed four foul shots.
In the third quarter Ivkovic gave center Aleksey Savrasenko a chance to take the floor. The army team began to increase their lead from the very beginning of the second half. With 7:40 left in the quarter, Ural Great was forced to take a time out trailing 37-48.
The home team tried to force the Army team to play fast. It was a natural move as the Perm team’s inside game isn’t their strongest point. Regardless, they weren’t able to gain much ground, and three minutes later Ivkovic took a time out of his own in order to slow down the tempo a bit. It proved to be in vain. Furthermore, with 1:30 left in the third quarter, Shannon and Kubrakov dropped in consecutive three-pointers. The long-distance bombs brought the crowd alive and turn the fans into Ural Great’s “sixth man” At that point the Army team had to go without the services of Songaila. The Lithuanian left the floor with four fouls, ensuring that he wouldn’t pick up his fifth and miss the crucial final minutes. CSKA kept their lead in the quarter and went into the fourth leading 53-57.
Ural-Great couldn’t carry the momentum into the fourth quarter. In the first 4 minutes of the quarter, the home team scored only three points, all of them on free-throws. But in the fifth minute, starting with Viktor Khryapa’s fifth foul and disqualification from the game, Ural Great began to make a run. Almost nothing remained of CSKA’s lead – 61-64. With two minutes left until the final buzzer, Ural-Great had tied the score – 70-70.
1:24 – with the score 70-71, Darius Songaila picked up his fifth foul. Chris Anstey hit both free-throws.
1:09 – Victor Alexander hits Anstey’s hand – 72-73. Ural-Great takes time out.
1:02 – two-point basket by Shannon
0:47 – Alexander miss from mid-range
0:26 – (0:24 on the scoreboard) two points from Martin Muursepp, his counterpart not on the floor
0:06 – Chatzivrettas misses three-pointer, Panov can’t put ball in basket. CSKA loses
Post-game:
After the game CSKA head coach Dusan Ivkovic noted that in the dressing room he didn’t say one word to the players about the officiating in the game. And in general that he doesn’t like to comment on officials. However, what happened on the court at the Perm “Molot” could make not only CSKA look bad, but Russian basketball in general: “I have competed in thousands of games,” said Ivkovich. “I’ve watched about ten thousand more on video. But I’ve never seen officials give a regular foul, and then five seconds later changed it to an unsportsmanlike foul. If you look at the statistics, CSKA led in almost every category: field-goal percentage, rebounding, assists. Only the final score wasn’t in our favor. The main reason was referee Lebedev. His colleagues let him do anything he wanted to out on the floor.”
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