Euroleague: Barcelona thrashes CSKA in Moscow

Week five of the Euroleague 2012-13 season has started out leaving one wondering what’s in store on Friday as five of six games went to the road teams, the battle in Group D between two of the four remaining undefeated teams in the league was over in the first quarter and the one home squad that picked up a win was a decisive upset.

Group D
CSKA Moscow – FC Barcelona Regal 60:81
In what had ‘Game of the Week’ potential, Barcelona took their contingent on the road to Moscow and will return home to Spain as one of he only undefeated teams left in the league. The win keeps Barcelona unblemished at 5-0 and drops CSKA to 4-1 with five weeks remaining. Besiktas at 3-2 is the only other team with potential to move up quickly in the Group D standings.

The game was close at halftime with Barcelona holding a slim 35:38 advantage heading into the break. The visitors opened the contest up in the second half though, outscoring their hosts 13:25 in the third and 12:18 in the fourth. The key stat to this contest was shooting percentage, specifically, three-point shooting percentage. Barcelona shot eight for 22 (36.4%) from behind the arc, while CSKA could only manage to connect on one for 15 (6.7%).

Juan Arlos Navarro lead Barcelona with 21 points, Erazem added 15, Marcelinho Huertas dropped in 12 and Nate Jawai added 10 to the win.
Nenad Krstic tallied 18 for CSKA and Milos Teodosic contributed 12 to the losing effort.

Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius – Besiktas JK Istanbul 67:73
Besiktas got a key win in their quest to move to the Top 16 when they traveled to Lithuania and came out on the strong side of a 67:73 score. The win puts Besiktas at 3-2 and drops Rytas to 1-4 at the halfway point of the season.

The two squads battled for three quarters to a 48:49 score heading into the final 10. The visitors took control early in the fourth when Curtis Jerrells dropped in three-ball, Damir Markota sank three singles after getting fouled behind the arc, and Markota found an opening and dropped in two on a lay-up, to put Besiktas up by nine. The squads traded baskets until Lietuvos got to within four with less than two minutes to play, but they couldn’t get any closer and Besiktas closed it out with a six point advantage.

Jerrells led all scores with 25 for Besiktas, Markota added 13 and Vladimir Dasic contributed 10 to the win.
Steponas Babrauskas got 14 for Rytas and Nemanja Nedovic added 11.

Group A
Mapooro Cantu – Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul 82:56
Cantu was the only squad to pick up a win in front of their home crowd and pulled themselves a step closer to advancing to the Top 16 with a decisive 82:56 victory. Cantu stepped ahead with a nine-point run at the end of the first quarter. By the half they were up 41:27 and cruised in the second half to the win. The win improved Cantu to 2-3 on the season and dropped Ulker to 3-2.

Jonathan Tabu paced Mapooro with 16 points, Jeff Brooks and Marco Cusin added 15 point each, and Pietro Aradori contributed 14.
Romain Sato tallied 10 for Fenerbahce, Bojan Bogdanovic and David Andersen added eight each.

Group B
Alba Berlin – Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 76:78
Maccabi kept their undefeated season alive by holding of a scrappy Alba Berlin squad at the O2 in Berlin. The win improves Tel Aviv to 5-0, the loss drops Alba to 2-3.

The visitors got out to a six-point advantage at the end of the first quarter, 10:16, but Alba cut that by three at the half, 35:38. The two played the third evenly, with Maccabi taking a four-point margin into the final 10, 52:56.

The visitors extended their advantage to eight points early in the fourth quarter, but a three-pointer and a pair of charity tosses cut the margin to three, 60:63. With just over a minute to play Tel Aviv’s Shawn James sank a lay up to extend their lead to six, 70:76. Alba cut their deficit to two with a pair of lay ups. Maccabi pushed the margin back to four before Vule Avdalovic was able to bring Alba back to within two. Avdalovic forced a turnover to give Alba an opportunity to tie or win with the final shot. The Maccabi defense kept the hosts outside and forced Heiko Schaffartzik to take a long-range shot at the buzzer that missed to preserve the win for the visitors.

Devin Smith paced the winners with 20 points and Guy Pnini added 11.
Berlin got 17 from Nihad Djedovic, 14 from Deon Thompson, and 10 from Zach Morley.

Elan Chalon-Sur-Saone – Unicaja Malaga 78:88
Unicaja pushed their record to 4-1 at the midway point of the season with a 10-point win over Elan, who dropped their record to 1-4. The difference of the game was the second quarter where the visitors outscored their hosts 11:20 to take a 32:44 advantage into the intermission.

Elan cut the margin to seven at the end of the three with a five-point run at the end of the third. Elan was able to get to within five mid-way through the final quarter, but the visitors held on and took another step toward moving to the next level with the 10-point victory.

Luka Zoric paced Unicaja with 17, Krunoslav Simon got 16, James Gist added 13, Marcus Williams contributed 12, and Earl Calloway dropped in 11.
Blake Schilb topped all scorers with 24 for Elan, Brion Rush added 12, and Joffrey Lauvergne contributed 10 in the loss.

Group C
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan – Olympiacos Piraeus 71:84
The 2011-12 Euroleague Champions got a much needed win in Group C with a road win against Milan. The loss dropped the hosts to 2-3, while Olympiacos improved to 3-2.

The visitors got out to a 17:24 advantage at the end of the first quarter and Milan cut the margin by two to go into the second half down 36:41. Olympiacos took care of business in the second half to bring home the win and move closer to the top 16.

Vassilis Spanoulis led the way for Olympiacos with 23 points, Kostas Papanikolaou added 17, Dimitrios Movroeidis dropped in 13.
Keith Langford tallied 17 for Milan, Ioannis Bourousis added 16, Malik Hairston contributed 15.