By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow recorded their third straight victory in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague after beating Unicaja Malaga with ease at home 101-76. With this win, the Russian side completed the sweep over Unicaja and Othello Hunter had an extra reason to celebrate.
CSKA‘s center became a father yesterday as his wife gave birth to their daughter. The big man didn’t take the day off as he had a perfect game. He finished the night with 10 points and zero misses as he was perfect from the field (4/4) and also from the free-throw line (2/2). Will Clyburn added 13 points while grabbing four boards and delivering six assists.
As usual Nando De Colo had a game-high with 23 points on a 9-10 shooting making everything look easy.
The offensive clinic by CSKA on the wings of Nikita Kurbanov during the first quarter gave an advantage for the rest of the game. The hosts scored 30 points in that period as Kurbanov nailed 10. He was scoring from all over the floor, hitting two three-pointers and adding four points from inside the paint. The team coached by Dimitris Itoudis built a double-digit lead after the first quarter (30-20) and never looked back.
Itoudis used all of his 12 players in the first half and nine of them were able to score in the first 20 minutes. CSKA was 7/11 from the three-point territory and they dished 16 assists in the first half building a 57-43 lead.
The “Army Team” didn’t slow down in the second half as they recorded 29 assists in total which is their season-high.
Nemanja Nedovic was back to Unicaja’s squad after missing the game with Crvena Zvezda last week. He had 15 points, but that was far from enough for Unicaja.
With this win, CSKA moved up to a 20-5 record holding tight their first place while Unicaja slipped to a 10-15 record moving away from the playoff picture.
Photo credit: Euroleague