FIBA Basketball
RUS - CSKA Moscow fight back and stun Barca to reach title game
PRAGUE (Euroleague) – CSKA Moscow staged a third-quarter comeback to beat Winterthur Barcelona and advance to Sunday's Euroleague Final against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Russian giants, beaten by
PRAGUE (Euroleague) – CSKA Moscow staged a third-quarter comeback to beat Winterthur Barcelona and advance to Sunday's Euroleague Final against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The Russian giants, beaten by Tau Ceramica in a semi-final last year in Moscow when they hosted the Final Four, looked to be headed for an early exit this year, too.
They trailed by 13 points early in the third quarter but went on a 13-0 run, getting eight points from Theo Papaloukas in that spurt, and ended up prevailing 84-75.
Ettore Messina's men will now take on two-time defending champions Maccabi, who earlier thrashed Tau in a re-match of last year's final, 85-70.
Shammond Williams had a game-high 24 points for Barcelona, but it was the two-headed monster of point guard JR Holden and Theo Papaloukas who fired CSKA to victory.
Holden hit his first five three-pointers and finished with 19 points while Greek star Papaloukas had a season-high 19.
“It was a tough game for us,” said CSKA Moscow coach Ettore Messina, who left Benetton Treviso after last season to take over the Russian giants.
“Even when we were down by 10 in the second quarter, we just kept playing because we believed in ourselves. We kept doing our job and in the end, we found our chemistry.
“It was hard because Barcelona has more players than us and we had to find another way.”
The comeback capped a dramatic day for Messina, whose 16-month old son Andrea required urgent medical attention in Prague on Thursday evening and had to be taken to hospital.
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s physiotherapists arrived back at their team hotel to find Messina’s wife looking for help with Andrea suffering from a high fever and having fallen unconscious.
Messina was at his son’s side earlier Friday in hospital and Andrea, who was suffering from an infection, is recovering.
“At least we now know what he has,” a tired an exhausted-looking Messina said to PA Sport after the game. “But he is improving.”
Those events, perhaps, helped Messina maintain his cool on Friday evening as his players struggled to hit form. It is just a game, afterall.
CSKA went nearly five minutes without scoring a basket, giving Barca the perfect opportunity to build a huge lead yet Dusko Ivanovic’s team were unable to take full advantage.
Papaloukas came off the bench in his customary sixth man role and lit a fire under CSKA.
Both he and Slovenian international Matjaz Smodis scored eight points as CSKA clawed their way back to 38-34 at half-time.
Barca made five of 10 three-pointers in the opening half to just one of six for CSKA yet held only a four-point lead.
CSKA did earn numerous trips to the free throw line where they made 13 of 19.
At the start of the second half, CSKA were in danger of falling too far off the pace when they had their 13-0 surge.
The key sequence occurred with the Spanish side leading 50-42.
Papaloukas got out on a fast break and attacked the basket. Gregor Fucka of Barca had position and appeared to block the shot, only for the referees to call a foul.
Fucka lost his cool, followed the referee around the court and was slapped with a technical foul.
As a consequence, Papaloukas made his two shots from the line, and then Trajan Langdon stepped up to make two technical free throws.
Papaloukas then scored on a drive and the lead was suddenly 50-48.
He wasn’t finished. He drove down the lane again to tie the contest at 50-50 with two minutes and 19 seconds to play in the third quarter – the first time the teams had been level since the start of the game.
Then Holden buried one of his three-pointers for a 53-50 advantage – CSKA’s first of the game with 1:40 to play in the third.
The momentum was with CSKA, who built a 57-52 lead at the end of the third.
The Russians built a nine-point advantage with under three minutes to go, but then Williams started to work his magic.
He drove hard to the basket, soaring into the land of the giants and scored with his left hand while also drawing a foul. He made the free throw as CSKA closed to 75-72.
But after a pair of Langdon free throws, Fucka missed down low for Barca and despite an offensive foul on Papaloukas with 31 seconds to play, Thornton missed a three-pointer and CSKA held on.
Barcelona’s Michail Kakiouzis was called for an intentional foul on Smodis while attempting to stop the clock and Barca were later hit with a technical foul as they complained bitterly to the referees about their officiating.
Some of the calls were questionable, but Barca should not have been in the situation anyway.
They should have pressed home their advantage in the first half but instead allowed CSKA to come back.
“I don’t like to talk about referees’ performances,” Ivanovic said. “I said yesterday at the press conference that all four teams had an equal chance to win it.
“This (semi-final) is a pity for basketball. Not for Barcelona, because next year or in the future, we’ll eventually win the title.
“We needed more faith to beat CSKA on the court, but also to beat the other aspects of the game.”
Messina said: “The key to this win has been the mental strength of my players. They are not the best in the world, but they showed a lot of determination, a lot of unity and confidence.
“I told them earlier this week when we were preparing for the game against Barcelona that Barca have more quality players, and have more alternatives than we have, but I told my players that if we went into the last quarter with a close game, we had a chance.
“My players played with confidence. They never feared defeat, even though they may have been down 12 points and considering we had a horrible start to the game.”
From Jeff Taylor, PA Sport, Prague Exclusively for FIBA
The Russian giants, beaten by Tau Ceramica in a semi-final last year in Moscow when they hosted the Final Four, looked to be headed for an early exit this year, too.
They trailed by 13 points early in the third quarter but went on a 13-0 run, getting eight points from Theo Papaloukas in that spurt, and ended up prevailing 84-75.
Ettore Messina's men will now take on two-time defending champions Maccabi, who earlier thrashed Tau in a re-match of last year's final, 85-70.
Shammond Williams had a game-high 24 points for Barcelona, but it was the two-headed monster of point guard JR Holden and Theo Papaloukas who fired CSKA to victory.
Holden hit his first five three-pointers and finished with 19 points while Greek star Papaloukas had a season-high 19.
“It was a tough game for us,” said CSKA Moscow coach Ettore Messina, who left Benetton Treviso after last season to take over the Russian giants.
“Even when we were down by 10 in the second quarter, we just kept playing because we believed in ourselves. We kept doing our job and in the end, we found our chemistry.
“It was hard because Barcelona has more players than us and we had to find another way.”
The comeback capped a dramatic day for Messina, whose 16-month old son Andrea required urgent medical attention in Prague on Thursday evening and had to be taken to hospital.
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s physiotherapists arrived back at their team hotel to find Messina’s wife looking for help with Andrea suffering from a high fever and having fallen unconscious.
Messina was at his son’s side earlier Friday in hospital and Andrea, who was suffering from an infection, is recovering.
“At least we now know what he has,” a tired an exhausted-looking Messina said to PA Sport after the game. “But he is improving.”
Those events, perhaps, helped Messina maintain his cool on Friday evening as his players struggled to hit form. It is just a game, afterall.
CSKA went nearly five minutes without scoring a basket, giving Barca the perfect opportunity to build a huge lead yet Dusko Ivanovic’s team were unable to take full advantage.
Papaloukas came off the bench in his customary sixth man role and lit a fire under CSKA.
Both he and Slovenian international Matjaz Smodis scored eight points as CSKA clawed their way back to 38-34 at half-time.
Barca made five of 10 three-pointers in the opening half to just one of six for CSKA yet held only a four-point lead.
CSKA did earn numerous trips to the free throw line where they made 13 of 19.
At the start of the second half, CSKA were in danger of falling too far off the pace when they had their 13-0 surge.
The key sequence occurred with the Spanish side leading 50-42.
Papaloukas got out on a fast break and attacked the basket. Gregor Fucka of Barca had position and appeared to block the shot, only for the referees to call a foul.
Fucka lost his cool, followed the referee around the court and was slapped with a technical foul.
As a consequence, Papaloukas made his two shots from the line, and then Trajan Langdon stepped up to make two technical free throws.
Papaloukas then scored on a drive and the lead was suddenly 50-48.
He wasn’t finished. He drove down the lane again to tie the contest at 50-50 with two minutes and 19 seconds to play in the third quarter – the first time the teams had been level since the start of the game.
Then Holden buried one of his three-pointers for a 53-50 advantage – CSKA’s first of the game with 1:40 to play in the third.
The momentum was with CSKA, who built a 57-52 lead at the end of the third.
The Russians built a nine-point advantage with under three minutes to go, but then Williams started to work his magic.
He drove hard to the basket, soaring into the land of the giants and scored with his left hand while also drawing a foul. He made the free throw as CSKA closed to 75-72.
But after a pair of Langdon free throws, Fucka missed down low for Barca and despite an offensive foul on Papaloukas with 31 seconds to play, Thornton missed a three-pointer and CSKA held on.
Barcelona’s Michail Kakiouzis was called for an intentional foul on Smodis while attempting to stop the clock and Barca were later hit with a technical foul as they complained bitterly to the referees about their officiating.
Some of the calls were questionable, but Barca should not have been in the situation anyway.
They should have pressed home their advantage in the first half but instead allowed CSKA to come back.
“I don’t like to talk about referees’ performances,” Ivanovic said. “I said yesterday at the press conference that all four teams had an equal chance to win it.
“This (semi-final) is a pity for basketball. Not for Barcelona, because next year or in the future, we’ll eventually win the title.
“We needed more faith to beat CSKA on the court, but also to beat the other aspects of the game.”
Messina said: “The key to this win has been the mental strength of my players. They are not the best in the world, but they showed a lot of determination, a lot of unity and confidence.
“I told them earlier this week when we were preparing for the game against Barcelona that Barca have more quality players, and have more alternatives than we have, but I told my players that if we went into the last quarter with a close game, we had a chance.
“My players played with confidence. They never feared defeat, even though they may have been down 12 points and considering we had a horrible start to the game.”
From Jeff Taylor, PA Sport, Prague Exclusively for FIBA