May 19, 2013
Regular Season Game 9 - January 07, 2009 CET: 19:15 Local time: 20:15 - ABDI IPEKÇI SPORTS HALL
Efes Pilsen 55 - 74 CSKA Moscow

Records

Ave.   Ave.
0-0 Final Four 0-0
0-0 Playoffs 0-0
0-0 Top 16 0-0
4-4 Regular Season 6-2
4-4 Overall 6-2

Referees

Crew Chief
HIERREZUELO, DANI, Spain
Referee
MUHVIC, DUBRAVKO, Croatia
Umpire
HERCEG, SINISA, Croatia

Team Stats

Ave.   Ave.
73.6 Points 79.6
26.5 Rebounds 31.8
7.8 O. Rebounds 9.3
18.8 D. Rebounds 22.5
11.1 Assists 16.1
10.0 Steals 7.0
2.8 Blocks 4.4
14.4 Turnovers 11.4
57.0 % 2PT 54.7 %
33.3 % 3PT 46.5 %
73.7 % FT 75.7 %
78.8 Index 97.6
Team Stats - Efes Pilsen
Team Stats - CSKA Moscow

Player Stats

Ave.   Ave.
13.6 / SMITH, CHARLES Points 11.4 / LANGDON, TRAJAN
6.8 / Gonlum Rebounds 5.6 / MORRIS, TERENCE
2.4 / Gonlum OR 2.0 / Lorbek
4.4 / Gonlum DR 4.3 / MORRIS, TERENCE
2.9 / Thornton Assists 3.5 / Zisis
2.4 / SMITH, CHARLES Steals 1.1 / Lorbek
1.0 / SMITH, CHARLES Blocks 1.8 / MORRIS, TERENCE
3.1 / VUJANIC, MILOS Turnovers 1.6 / Lorbek
100.0 % / Guler 2PT 78.6 % / Khryapa
50.0 % / Gonlum 3PT 50.0 % / LANGDON, TRAJAN
100.0 % / Guler FT 100.0 % / Khryapa
15.5 / Gonlum Index 13.0 / Lorbek
Team Roster - Efes Pilsen
Team Roster - CSKA Moscow

THE TAKE

Two teams with important goals face off Wednesday in Istanbul, Turkey, when Efes Pilsen hosts CSKA Moscow. Efes can clinch a berth to the Top 16 this week with a win, while CSKA could potentially wrap up first place if it wins and Real Madrid loses at Armani Jeans Milano on Thursday. Efes won its last two games before the winter break to improve to 4-4, but must also beat CSKA to avoid finishing the regular season with a losing record at home. Meanwhile CSKA dropped a rare home decision to Madrid before the break to fall to 6-2. The champs are back to 100% health after missing key players like J.R. Holden, Ramunas Siskauskas and Matjaz Smodis for chunks of the season until now. Head coach Ettore Messina’s men should have plenty of confidence heading into this game after spanking Efes 90-68 in November in a game where they tied the Euroleague record with 18 three-pointers made and smashed the record for best accuracy by shooting 72% from downtown. Siskauskas led five CSKA scorers in double figures with 19 points and Trajan Langdon and Terence Morris drilled 5 three-pointers apiece. Charles Smith was also red-hot from downtown that night, making 6 of 9 threes to lead Efes with 22 points. Other than Smith’s shooting, head coach Ergin Ataman will look to erase the memories of that game with a strong team effort, particularly on defense. CSKA is tied for the fewest turnovers committed this season (11.4 per game) and leads the competition in three-point shooting (46.5%), two things Efes’s deep backcourt will try to change. With a rotation that is headed by Milos Vujanic and Bootsy Thornton and also features Ender Arslan and Cliff Hammonds plus Smith and Preston Shumpert at small forward, Efes will look to wear down CSKA’s backcourt of Holden, Langdon, Siskauskas, Nikos Zisis and Zoran Planinic. Inside, Efes looks to Kerem Gonlum, Kaya Peker and Michailis Kakiouzis and could get a boost if Mario Kasun is available for the first time this season after recovering from injury. They will challenge Smodis, Morris, Erazem Lorbek and Viktor Khryapa. Both teams have plenty of offensive firepower, but defense will surely be the key to victory. Efes has won every game in which it has limited its opponent to fewer than 75 points this season and lost whenever it surrendered more than that. And CSKA has only allowed more than 70 points twice this season – and lost both times. Accordingly this game should also be a low-scoring and tense affair that could go down to the wire.

GAME NOTES

Efes Pilsen
  • Forward Michailis Kakiouzis needs only 6 more defensive rebounds to reach 500 for his career – a feat only seven players to date have accomplished.
  • Efes Pilsen leads the all-time series against CSKA Moscow 7-5. Efes won five in a row between 1997 and 2003, but CSKA has won the last four, including sweeping the 2006 Quarterfinal Playoffs 2-0.
  • Bootsy Thornton needs only 3 more three-pointers to reach 100 for his career.
  • Guard Milos Vujanic will take part in his 100th Euroleague game this week. Vujanic has played those games for five different teams: 26 for Partizan Belgrade, 40 for Fortitudo Bologna, four for FC Barcelona, 21 for Panathinaikos and now nine for Efes Pilsen.
  • Vujanic was a teammate of CSKA captain Matjaz Smodis and big man Erazem Lorbek on Skipper Bologna in the 2003-04 season. That team reached the Euroleague title game before losing to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
  • Thornton and Kakiouzis were teammates of CSKA assistant coach David Vanterpool at Montepaschi Siena between 2003 and 2005.
CSKA Moscow
  • Reigning Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas is just 2 steals away from reaching 100 for his Euroleague Basketball career.
  • Swingman Trajan Langdon spent the 2003-04 season playing for Efes Pilsen. He helped the club win the Turkish League championship and come within one win of the Euroleague Final Four. Three players from Efes’s current roster – Kaya Peker, Cenk Akyol and Ender Arslan – were teammates of his then. Langdon has only played Efes Pilsen three times since he left the team and averaged 17 points on 12-for-19 three-point shooting in those games.
  • Guard Nikos Zisis scored a career-high 22 points against Efes Pilsen in a March 2005 game. Zisis, then with AEK Athens, won the game with a miracle shot at the buzzer for a 70-69 victory. He fell down, got up and hit a turnaround three-pointer over two defenders as the horn sounded to finish a heroic comeback from 13 points down late in the third quarter.
  • Guard Zoran Planinic set his career-high in assists against Efes Pilsen in a January 2007 game. Planinic, then with Tau Ceramica, dished 10 assists in a 78-84 road win in Istanbul.
  • When CSKA last played Efes in November, the reigning Euroleague champs tied the Euroleague record with 18 three-pointers made and smashed the record for best accuracy by shooting 72% from downtown.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Euroleague.net

Quotes Head Coaches

ATAMAN, ERGIN
Efes Pilsen
"It's a kind of determination game for both teams in the group. CSKA Moscow is aiming to finish the first phase in the regular season. What we need is to win for to guarantee a place in the next round. We know that it's going to be as hard as the first game in Moscow, in which we played really terrible. I'm sure my players will remember their mistakes to not to repeat again here in our home court. We must be as tough as we can in defense and as quick as we can in offense. This is the key for us to win against a great team like CSKA Moscow, but only if you do it for 40 minutes long with harmony. I think we have our chances in our hands to win the game this time."
MESSINA, ETTORE
CSKA Moscow
"Probably we played one of our best games defeating Efes Pilsen at home, but at that time, Efes was just a different team. Now they are playing together for a longer time and they have two good wins – against Milano and Panionios – which kept them on the track for getting to the Top 16. We should not hope that we will shoot with the same percentage as we did at home, so we have to rely on defense and rebounding as we usually do. After a long break we had eight days of good practices, so we hope to show our best game in Istanbul."

Players

AKYOL, CENK
Efes Pilsen
"It means a lot of things to play this game for each of us as Efes Pilsen players. We had a terrible game in Moscow and lost with big difference. But we are not that kind of a team. It was like a nightmare that we never want to see again and will never happen for sure. Everybody agrees that CSKA Moscow is one of the great teams of all time in the Euroleague. But we have the tradition to play always for the top and have been to many quarterfinals. We want to show something special to our fans, which we were not able to show since than the beginning of the season. Of course, we can lose again, but I'm sure about one thing: That we will fight to win the game from the first second, until the last."
KAUN, SASHA
CSKA Moscow
"We are in first place in our group now and we will try to finish the regular season on top. That is why the game in Istanbul is very important for us. Efes Pilsen is very good, aggressive team which plays much better in front of its home crowd. So we have to play as good as we can to earn the win."
Trajan Langdon - CSKA MoscowCSKA Moscow reestablished its dominance with a 55-74 road win over Efes Pilsen behind a spectacular shooting performance from Final Four MVP Trajan Langdon. The champs led by just 1 at halftime, but ran away in the second half to lead by as many as 21 before easing up in the final minutes. Langdon shot 7 for 10 from downtown to lead CSKA with 27 points – his best output since scoring 32 as a Euroleague rookie in November 2002. CSKA improved to 7-2 and has all but wrapped up first place in Group D. Meanwhile Efes missed a chance to clinch a Top 16 fell to 4-5 on the season, however could still reach the next stage this week if Real Madrid beats Armani Jeans on Thursday. Erazem Lorbek added 12 points for CSKA, while Zoran Planinic dished 5 assists and Viktor Khryapa grabbed 9 rebounds. Bootsy Thornton paced Efes with 19 points in defeat.

Ender Arslan was confident early on, drawing a foul and make free throws and then driving for a layup in Efes’s first two possessions. But Ramunas Siskauskas’s short jumper and a Langdon three-pointer gave CSKA a 4-5 lead. Thornton connected from downtown and then Charles Smith drove the lane to put Efes ahead, however Lorbek knotted the score on the offensive glass. Thornton and Siskauskas traded baskets before Terence Morris drilled a three and Planinic converted a basket-plus-foul in traffic to cap a 0-7 CSKA charge that made it 11-16. Head coach Ergin Ataman called a timeout after which the Efes defense tightened up, but the hosts still had trouble cracking the CSKA defense and would not score a basket in the last three-and-a-half minutes of the period. Langdon banked in a buzzer-beating three from eight meters to give the visitors a 12-19 lead after 10 minutes.

Bootsy Thornton - Efes PilsenTough defenses remained on display in the second period, but Efes began finiding way to generate points. First Thornton buried a three, then Cenk Akyol drove for a basket and when Predrag Drobnjak scored on the offensive glass, the hosts cut the gap to 19-21. Smodis answered with a Moscow jumper, but Akyol trimmed the gap to 1 with a three-pointer. CSKA responded quickly with Lorbek scoring twice inside and Langdon adding a basket on the break. Drobnjak drilled a three and Bootsy hit a turn-around jumper to bring the hosts within a basket. And then Bootsy swooped in for a steal and a two-handed slam to tie the game and thrill the fans. Milos Vujanic made a layup to cap a 9-0 run and give Efes a 31-29 lead. The champs stayed cool and tied the score through Smodis before J.R. Holden added a three. Preston Shumpert’s free throws saw Efes get within 33-34 at the halftime break.

Langdon continued his strong night with a triple to open the second half. Arslan went down hard attempting a layup and needed to come out of the game. He did not return. Meanwhile Langdon connected one more from downtown and Smodis got three the hard way as CSKA took its first double-digit lead. Peker battled for a basket with a reverse move and Shumpert added a jumper in the paint as Efes stayed in the game. However Langdon’s fifth three of the evening kept CSKA comfortably ahead. Bootsy buried a big three only to see Holden match him at the other end. Thornton then hit a jumper, but Langdon bettered him with another three. And after Shumpert and Morris both scored, the visitors led 46-56 heading into the fourth quarter.

Langdon hit his seventh three to open the fourth and the CSKA defense kept Efes scoreless for nearly four minutes with an impressive block by Siskauskas on a Smith dunk attempt highlighting the stretch. Planinic stretched the CSKA lead to 14 before Smith scored on the break for Efes. However Efes could not gain the momentum as free throws from Khryapa and baskets by Siskauskas and Lorbek gave CSKA an 18-point lead. A Holden jumper made it 48-68 and Lorbek made it a 0-10 run before Hammonds answered with a three. But by now the final outcome was clear as the champs enjoyed the final minutes of a big win.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Euroleague.net
Referees: HIERREZUELO, DANI (ESP), MUHVIC, DUBRAVKO (CRO), HERCEG, SINISA (CRO)
Attendance: 7000
By Quarter1234
Efes Pilsen1221139
CSKA Moscow19152218
End of Quarter1234
Efes Pilsen12334655
CSKA Moscow19345674
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN
Efes Pilsen
# Player Min Pts 2FG
M-A
 3FG
M-A
 FT
M-A
 Rebounds As St To Bl Fouls PIR
O D T Fv Ag Cm Rv
7 SMITH, CHARLES 16:54 6 2/3 0/3 2/2   3 3   2     1 1 2 7
9 SHUMPERT, PRESTON 16:08 6 2/2 0/1 2/2                 2 2 5
11 THORNTON, BOOTSY 36:11 19 4/7 3/4 2/2   2 2   3 2   2   4 20
12 GONLUM, KEREM 27:00 1 0/3   1/2   4 4   1 3 2 1 2 2  
13 VUJANIC, MILOS 15:48 2 1/2 0/2     4 4 1   2       2 4
14 PEKER, KAYA 16:07 2 1/3   0/2   1 1   2 2 1 1 3 2 -2
15 KAKIOUZIS, MICHAILIS 19:52   0/2 0/1   2 2 4           2 1  
18 DROBNJAK, PREDRAG 14:40 5 1/1 1/3   1 1 2           1   4
25 HAMMONDS, CLIFF 14:14 3 0/1 1/1         1   1     1   1
32 GULER, SINAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
33 ARSLAN, ENDER 11:09 4 1/2 0/2 2/2   1 1     1     1 1 1
55 AKYOL, CENK 11:57 7 2/2 1/1             1     4 1 3
Team                     1         -1
Totals 200:00 55 14/28 6/18 9/12 3 18 21 2 8 13 3 5 17 17 42
50% 33.3% 75%
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Head coach: MESSINA, ETTORE
CSKA Moscow
# Player Min Pts 2FG
M-A
 3FG
M-A
 FT
M-A
 Rebounds As St To Bl Fouls PIR
O D T Fv Ag Cm Rv
6 ZISIS, NIKOS 9:40   0/2       1 1     1   1 1   -4
7 KEYRU, VICTOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 SMODIS, MATJAZ 10:54 7 3/6 0/3 1/1   2 2   2 2     3 3 3
9 SISKAUSKAS, RAMUNAS 37:12 6 3/3 0/3   1 4 5 2 1 1 1   3 3 11
10 HOLDEN, J.R. 32:14 8 1/4 2/2     1 1 4   2   1 1   6
12 LORBEK, ERAZEM 29:40 12 6/8     1 5 6 1   1 2   2   16
20 VORONTSEVICH, ANDREY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 LANGDON, TRAJAN 28:36 27 3/3 7/10     1 1 1 3 2       2 29
24 KAUN, SASHA 1:49   0/1                     1   -2
31 KHRYAPA, VICTOR 20:41 6 0/2   6/8 1 8 9 2 3 1 1   3 6 19
34 PLANINIC, ZORAN 20:35 3 1/2   1/3   1 1 5   1     2 3 6
44 MORRIS, TERENCE 8:39 5 1/1 1/3         1     1 1 1   3
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 74 18/32 10/21 8/12 4 23 27 16 9 11 5 3 17 17 88
56.3% 47.6% 66.7%
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

ATAMAN, ERGIN
Efes Pilsen
"We knew that it was going to be a very hard game. We did what we planned in defense throughout the first half. Our guards, however, were not able to generate points. CSKA Moscow is a great team, which plays top-level basketball. Being honest, they are a level ahead of us. They have a great coach and a great roster, which makes them special. They played great in the second half and moved the ball with patience. They deserved to win and I congratulate them. My players also challenged them well, especially in the first half. We weren’t able to keep up the good work for 40 minutes. Some of my players were not putting a full effort to push the game to our side. We will take some measures about it later on.”
MESSINA, ETTORE
CSKA Moscow
"We are very happy for this win, because I think we played a very good and solid second half. We played very good defense, chose our options well and kept control in offense. We moved the ball well to find good shots. I think this is an important win. I think we are very close to winning this group. I guess it’s only mathematics. It means a lot for our team confidence. We knew that Efes Pilsen would prepare this game very well after the game in Moscow. We knew that they would want to show their best game. They were highly motivated and that is why I am very pleased with the win. It was not an easy win for us. We recovered players like Ramunas Siskauskas and Matjaz Smodis, you should not forget that it was the first game we played with our full roster in the entire season. Until now, we always missed at least one or two players. So I am very happy for the effort that my team put out there.”

Players

THORNTON, BOOTSY
Efes Pilsen
“We stopped scoring in the second half and CSKA kept scoring. That was the summary of the entire game. We had a good game plan in the first half. They made shots, we didn’t make shots. We did not score enough points to beat a great team like CSKA Moscow. Now we have to win in Madrid to make it to the Top 16. We want to move to the next round.”
SMODIS, MATJAZ
CSKA Moscow
"I think this a very important win for us because it was the first one after the holiday break. We played very well, especially in the second half. Everybody contributed in the game. We played excellent defense. It is even more important because it is a road game. It will help us to build our character as a team and we needed this road win to prepare for the Top 16. Now we are first in the group but we have to keep playing well. There are always good teams in the Top 16, so we have to be ready for it."
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