By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Two of the top three teams in Euroleague met in Moscow on Friday for the finale of the regular season, with CSKA grabbing the 90-86 victory over Olympiacos.
The Nando De Colo/Milos Teodosic duel dropped 23 points each in CSKA‘s final win in the regular season.
CSKA was more dominant in the first quarter, leading with double-digit leads early on. The Greek team was led by Vangelis Mantzaris’ (12 p.) 5 straight points, yet was still down 25-15 after 10 minutes.
The hosts executed from the perimeter early in the second period, while Olympiacos‘ defense was rather slow. Andrey Vorontsevich (11 p.) reached 10 points at 13′, putting CSKA ahead 31-19. The deficit kept rising against the visitors’ favor, though they trimmed it to 8 at 19′. At halftime, the Russians’ lead was again in double digits, 47-37.
The Greek team could reduce to 4 points at 24′, with Birch and Mantzaris leading the way. Midway through the period, a three-pointer by Spanoulis (16 p.) cut CSKA’s lead to 3 points, while after 30 minutes, the hosts were up 71-63.
Kostas Papanikolaou (13 p.) reduced to 71-68, then again it was a 6-point game in the hosts’ favor. Ioannis Papapetrou (16 p.) tied the score at 81 points with less than 2 minutes remaining, yet the hosts stayed strong until the end.