Kostas Vasiliadis leads Gescrap BB to their first ever playoffs win; CSKA Moscow beaten 94-81: Euroleague Recap
Kostas Vasiliadis exploded with 20 points, including 4 for 8 from the long range, and hauled down six rebounds while Marko Banic added 18 on a 7 for 9 from the two point range as Gescrap BB pulled off one of the most significant
win in the history of their franchise, by upsetting the Russian giants CSKA Moscow 94-81 on Wednesday night.
Aaron Jackson also scored 13 points and 8 assists while Alex Mumbru had 12 for Gescrap, who sealed their first ever win in the playoffs in front of a raucous 10,000 plus crowd at the Bilbao Arena.
CSKA, who had lost only one game before tonight, were led by the usual suspects. Nenad Krstic made all of his 9 attempts from inside the arc to score a game-high 22 points; Andrei Kirilenko was not that impressive from the floor,
but still managed 16 points with 6 assists and three rebounds while Alexey Shved contributed 15 points. Kirilenko praised the spirit shown by the Spanish team;
"Bilbao is a great team and they played a different game from how they played in Moscow. Tonight, they make a lot of good shots from the beginning”. Said AK-47, “They started to feel their shots were going in and we made a lot
of mistakes. We wanted to win this one but we can't think about this now. We have to be focused on the next game. We are a good team and we had prepared this game well; it was supposed to be difficult for them to win after going behind 2-0.”
Moscow were nothing short of brilliant from the two point range, shelling in 57.6 percent of their shots, but were undone by a near 62 percent strike rate from the Spaniards, who also knocked down 9-of-21 from downtown.
Moscow started the game on a 9-3 run which was capped by a dunk from Kirilenko. Bilbao’ response was emphatic to say the least. In the next three minutes, the host let it rip with a 16-3 burst, taking a 19-11 advantage. CSKA recovered
with a 7-nothing span though, and by the end of the first quarter, they reduced the deficit to 24-25.
The second quarter belonged to Banic, who contributed 9 points in the piece to ensure a 47-40 Bilbao advantage at halftime. The hosts kept on pounding CSKA after the break as well and a late 9 point unanswered run ballooned the
lead to as many as 16 points at 71-55. The third quarter ended at 71-57 and the hosts then hung tough in the last 10 minutes, 23-24, to seal a famous triumph and keep their Final Four hopes alive.
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