After the victory over Partizan, CSKA secured its participation in the play-offs

Basketball Euroleague

CSKA basketball players (in red uniform) experienced difficulties in the game with Partizan for only one quarter
Photo: Dmitry Korotaev, Kommersant / buy photo

CSKA Moscow ahead of schedule, four rounds before the end of the second group stage of the Euroleague Basketball League, guaranteed itself access to the playoffs. His army team earned a home victory over the Serbian Partizan - 84:52.

CSKA approached this match with an excellent record: in nine matches there was only one defeat in Group F. And it was clear that even if it suddenly lost its rhythm a little, misfired, it would still not miss the playoffs. But the army team, it seems, did not want to postpone the decision to enter it until later.

However, it seems that Partizan, one of the outsiders of the top 16, did not want to give victory to the favorite. In any case, he showed serious resistance in the opening quarter. The army guys seemed to look more interesting, classier. But Partizan, not paying attention to other people's successes, patiently played the ball, scoring on the flag, scraping out rebounds and fouls. In general, I looked for my chances - and found them quite often. For more than half of the ten minutes, the army team caught up. But even after Sonny Weems finally put them ahead with a three-pointer, Partizan held on and didn’t let their opponents go far.

The feeling that it was incredibly difficult for him to hold on arose at the beginning of the next period. The army team had not yet succeeded in everything, but it was already clear how much CSKA - with its deep squad, with competent rotation performed by coach Ettore Messina - was superior to the guests in the variety of game options. To turn this advantage into a serious advantage in the score, very little was required - well, let’s say, for the snipers to shoot and for the defense to work a little tighter.

The stars eventually aligned for the hosts. Vitaly Fridzon exploded, adding a couple of long-range shots to the scoring drive. It broke through other snipers. And the Serbian basketball players - both the big ones and those who are more comfortable attacking from a distance - began to get stuck in army defensive formations over and over again.

Partizan coach Dusko Vujosevic, who once briefly and extremely unsuccessfully led CSKA, when the difference was close to ten points, decided to take a time out. However, its effect was invisible. CSKA continued to tear the Serbian team apart and at the end of the second quarter produced a segment in which Partizan responded with zero to its 14 points. And the difference, which was just, let’s say, not yet catastrophic for the guests, became such that it could already be safely called devastating.

After a long break, Partizan tried to torment the army team again. However, all his efforts, of course, were in vain. The revved-up CSKA confidently made it to victory and the playoffs.

Today, another Russian club playing in the top 16, Lokomotiv-Kuban, will also play its next match - at home against the Turkish Galatasaray. He also claims to reach the quarterfinals.

Alexey Dospehov

Basketball European Cups

Euroleague

Second group stage - top 16. 10th round

Group F. CSKA (Russia)--Partizan (Serbia) 84:52. Team position. 1. CSKA (Russia) - 19 points. 2. Real Madrid (Spain) - 17 (after 9 matches). 3. Maccabi (Israel, Tel Aviv) - 15 (9). 4. “Lokomotiv-Kuban” (Russia) — 13 (9). 5. Bayern (Germany) - 13 (9). 6. Galatasaray (Türkiye) - 12 (9). 7. Partizan - 12. 8. Zalgiris (Lithuania) - 10 (9).

European Cup

1/8 finals. Return matches

"Ankara" (Turkey) - "Khimik" (Ukraine) 72:60; first match 71:75. "Hapoel" (Israel, Haifa) - "Ulm" (Germany) 81:65; first match 87:89. "Lietuvos Rytas" (Lithuania) - "Crvena Zvezda" (Serbia) 82:80; first match 82:88.

Budivelnik (Ukraine) vs. Crvena Zvezda, Ankara vs. UNICS (Russia), Valencia (Spain) vs. Alba (Germany), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) meet in the quarter finals )--"Hapoel".

The first matches will be held on March 19 at the venues of the teams listed first, the return matches on March 26.

The army team was in a hurry to leave