CSKA Wins Cacak Tournament

Today CSKA won the Cacak basketball tournament, defeating FMP Zeleznik in the final by a score of 90-83.

The pre-game situation wasn’t in the Army club’s favor. Alexander Bashminov and Mario Austin were rested at the request of the PBC CSKA medical staff. The coaching staff had to play several young players, including Dmitry Peresypkin and Nikita Kurbanov, who took played twice on the day (a few hours earlier the CSKA Reserves defeated Borac, 73-68.

The Army club played well in all aspect of the game. Last season Zeleznik finished second in the Serbia and Montenegro championship, and in the offseason the Zeleznik players were able to get into optimal shape playing in the World University Games, where they took first place.

For that reason, few in the crowd counted on a CSKA victory. Nevertheless, after the first quarter the Red and Blue was able to build a 9-point lead, though the home team dominated the in the paint in the second quarter. Furthermore, Zeleznik shot well from 3-point land (4-4 in the second quarter) and played tough defense against CSKA’s young players. Without an opportunity to attack in the paint, CSKA relied on individual play from the senior players - Marcus Brown, J.R. Holden and Sergey Panov. The coaching staff had to battle with the officials on the floor, as well, as they were letting lots of contact go and giving the home team a slight advantage. Only after a techinical foul on Dusan Ivkovic did the officials begin to call the game more evenly.

The final quarter began with the score tied up at 73-73. CSKA’s Alexei Benebeyev sat with 5 fouls, Sergei Panov and Nikita Shabalkin each had 4 fouls. In the final minutes the CSKA frontline looked fairly exotic. Nikita Kurbanov played center, while Anton Yudin played power forward. And CSKA won, nonetheless. Marcus Brown scored 11 of CSKA’s 17 points in the fourth quarter. Brown was the tournament’s leading scorer, while J.R. Holden picked up the MVP award.

Final:
FMP Zeleznik - CSKA: 83-90 (19-28, 31-25, 23-30, 10-17)

Zeleznik: Pantic (19), Mandic (14), Plicinic (12), Zoroski (9), Jorovic (9)

CSKA:
Brown - 36 min.: 31 pts. (5/7 - 3-pt.) + 3 st. + 3 ass.
Panov - 31 min.: 15 pts. + 8 rebs. + 3 ass. + 5 fouls
Yudin - 27 min.: 8 pts. + 2 st.
Zavoruyev - 6 min.: 2 pts.
Holden - 38 min.: 21 pts. + 4 rebs. + 3 st. + 4 ass.
Shabalkin - 12 min.: 4 pts. + 3 rebs.
Vyaltsev - 17 min.: 3 pts. + 3 rebs. + 2 st.
Kurbanov - 14 min.: 4 pts. + 5 rebs.
Beznebeyev - 15 min.: 2 pts. + 3 rebs.
Peresypkin - 5 min: 2 b.s.


3rd Place Game:
PAOK (Greece) - Borac (Serbia and Montenegro): 76-69

Tomorrow the Army club travels to Belgrade, where they play Red Star on Tuesday. On Sept. 11 they travel to Novi Sad, where they will play Vojvodina