CSKA Moscow maintained its strong rise in Group C standings by winning its fourth straight game in dominant fashion on the road, 49-82 against Ulker in Istanbul on Wednesday. CSKA is now 4-2 and sure of at least a share of third place, while Ulker falls into a danger zone at 1-5 with its second home loss. A second-quarter surge in which it scored 14 unanswered points was all that CSKA needed to take charge for good, adding to its big leads the rest of the way. Matjaz Smodis led the winners with 18 points in 23 minutes, but the contributions for the winners spanned the whole lineup. David Andersen added 16 point, Trajan Langdon 12, David Vanterpool 10 rebouns and Theodoros Papaloukas 10 assists. Ulker got 11 points from Marcus Haislip and 10 from Mirsad Turkcan, who did all his scoring in the first half and also picked up 9 rebounds.
Sergei Panov got CSKA going with a three-pointer from the wing, to which Turkcan answered with a put-back for Ulker. Langdon kept CSKA's accuracy in order with a corner triple and Andersen added a layup that gave the guests a 2-8 margin. Turkcan and Marcus Haislip came to the rescue for Ulker with consecutive baskets, but a three-point play by a dominant Andersen kept the guests in charge. Omer Onan slashed for a tough layup but otherwise Ulker had troubles against CSKA's defense. Aleksey Savrasenko came off the bench and immediately scored in the paint and even when Turkcan nailed a jumper, Matjaz Smodis answered from downtown for a 10-16 CSKA lead. Turkcan kept scoring fluently, but he didn't get much help. Meanwhile, Savrasenko followed Holden's jumper with his second basket to give CSKA a 12-20 advantage after 10 minutes.
Vrbica Stefanov boosted Ulker with a corner triple and Ibrahim Kutluay copied him from downtown to make it a two-point game, 18-20, early in the second quarter. Papaloukas got CSKA back on track with a two-handed dunk off a steal, as the guests switched to zone defense. Turkcan beat it with a put-back basket, but a technical foul on him was called before CSKA broke open the game. Langdon and Andersen took over with 4 points apiece to force an Ulker timeout at 20-31. CSKA's zone defense was dominating now, while Andersen scored inside and Panov added a put-back basket to cap a 0-14 run that put the guests fully in charge, 20-37, after 18 minutes. Haislip came to the rescue with consecutive short jumpers for Ulker, but that didn't stop CSKA. Langdon silenced the crowd with a three before Papaloukas added a fastbreak layup and fed Holden for another, all good for a 24-44 CSKA margin at halftime.
Haislip and Andersen exchanged baskets early in the third quarter, as Ulker tried to power the offensive board. Free throws by Stefanov and Trepagnier brought Ulker within 29-46, but the scoring pace was slower after the break, allowing CSKA to keep its lead. Holden fed Langdon for an easy basket while Panov appeared again to get a put-back basket to boost CSKA's lead to 31-50 after 24 minutes. Kutluay came off a screen to nail a big jumper but the hosts needed much more than that. Vanterpool kept rebounding well at both ends and slashed for a layup which made it a 20-point game, 33-53. Smodis followed Holden's driving layup with a baseline jumper. Nothing changed until the end of this period, as Smodis nailed a triple and added an uncontested layup to give CSKA a 40-62 lead after 30 minutes.
The fourth quarter held little drama, especially after Smodis lit up with a pair of three-pointers in the first few minutes, raising the CSKA lead to 40-67. Despite a triple by Ibrahim Kutluay of Ulker, the visitors just kept adding to their advantage. Alexey Savrasenko, Theodoros Papaloukas, Nikita Kurbanov and Zakhar Pashutin all contributed points down the stretch. Only young Oguz Savas and Bekir Yarangume had anything left in them for Ulker, which went quietly to its third loss in a row in Group C.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
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