By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow will finish EuroLeague’s regular season as the second seed in the standings, after defeating Khimki Moscow Region, 72 – 80 on the road in the Russian derby. The ‘Army Team’ improved to a 23-6 record, while Khimki fell to 9-20.
The visitors showed their intentions since the first half. Ten of the eleven players coach Dimitris Itoudis used in the first twenty minutes, scored. Eventually, CSKA scored 49 first half points, leading by double-digits, 37-49.
With an 0-9 run in the third period, sparked by Daniel Hackett, CSKA went up by 19 points (42-61). Even though Khimki responded with Alexey Shved and cut the deficit to 11 points (53-64), they couldn’t challenge CSKA for the victory. The key to this win for CSKA, is that they shot 36 free-throws and made 31 of them, getting to the line frequently throughout the contest.
Coach Itoudis congratulated his players after clinching the second seed: “First, congratulations to my players. I think we were the better team and we deserved to win. We were in control and we had some big margins. Of course, Khimki has pride and they managed to come back and tried to cut the deficit. But I think we were under control the whole game and we deserved to win. We were the better team.”
Nando De Colo and Kyle Hines led the way for the winners. De Colo scored 14 points, while Hines added 12 points and seven rebounds. For the losing side, Shved had a game-high 17 points and seven assists, but shot the ball poorly from the field (2/10 3FG) (2/4 2FG).
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