Five-year plan for CSKA

Army basketball players again became champions of Russia

The flagship of Russian basketball, CSKA, needed three matches in the super final series against UNICS Kazan to win medals at the national championship for the fifth time in a row. After two victories at home, Italian specialist Ettore Messina's team went to the banks of the Volga, where they brought the job they started to its logical conclusion, finishing before the onset of summer - 78:71.

On the eve of the third match, a Vremya Novostei correspondent talked with the President of the Russian Basketball Federation, Sergei Chernov, and he was not sure that the series would end as soon as possible. And other experts rightly believed that the Kazan team should upset CSKA at least once, because the team of Lithuanian coach Antanas Sireyka was able to do this in the regular season. But it turned out that at the end of the intense season, the “red-blues” had more strength, having the most balanced squad in the super league.

The hot weather in central Russia indirectly affected the atmosphere of yesterday's match. There were a lot of empty seats on the upper tier of the stands of the Kazan Basket Hall. For many city residents, summer has already come into its own with all the ensuing consequences - vacations, holidays, summer season, and simply spending time not in the hall, but in nature. The sports palace's air conditioners couldn't cope with the stuffiness, and Messina even had to break her strict work dress code. It was a rare occasion when the Italian took off his signature jacket and rushed along the sideline in his shirt. The lucky club tie, however, remained in place.

At the end of the first quarter, the hosts' Lithuanian legionnaire Krzysztof Lavrynovic scored six points in a row in different ways - a long-range shot, a close-range shot and a free throw for violating his colleague from the opposing camp, Alexey Savrasenko. UNICS led 23:17, and at the end of the period increased this advantage to seven points.

Belgian Thomas van den Spiegel, who after the injury of Venezuelan Oscar Torres ceased to be the “extra” foreigner of CSKA in the matches of the domestic calendar, marked the beginning of a successful chase for the “red-blues” already in the second quarter. A three-point shot by Slovenian Matjaz Smodis, an effective attack by Greek Theodoras Papaloukas using the “two plus one” formula, and the efforts of David Andersen and Trajan Langdon allowed the army team to take the lead in the 17th minute – 41:39.

The so-called “swing” continued until the start of the final period. The key was the long-range shot from the Russian team's point guard, naturalized American John Robert Holden, who with a well-aimed shot from behind the six-meter line increased the guests' advantage to seven points (71:64) three and a half minutes before the siren. The UNICS players looked clearly tired, either from the heat or from the long season. The Kazan team made passes literally to nowhere several times, and in total they accumulated nine such blunders.

The series for third place, which began a day before the super final, also ended yesterday. “Khimki” defeated the capital’s “Dynamo” - 73:61, won with a total score of 3:1 and will receive bronze. For the second season in a row, the Blue and Whites remain without medals at the Russian championship.

Vladimir ILYIN