CSKA got bad with cups - Sport - Kommersant
The VTB United League Super Cup has ended in Moscow. In the final of the tournament, Zenit from St. Petersburg defeated CSKA with a score of 71:70. After the St. Petersburg club stripped the army team of the championship last season, it has recently won two more trophies from them.
The VTB United League Super Cup, which was attended by six teams, including the Serbian "Partizan" and "Mega", eventually came down to an increasingly principled confrontation between CSKA and Zenit. Last season, these rivals, as you know, fought for the main trophy of domestic basketball, and in a dramatic final play-off series, St. Petersburg took it away from Muscovites, who owned the VTB League championship title for many years. Already in the course of the current off-season, they managed to sort things out in the Cup final between Vladimir Kondrashin and Alexander Belov, and Zenit achieved a very convincing success with a plus 21 difference. And now the next round of the basketball derby of the two capitals within the framework of the Super Bowl has taken place.
Although the club from the banks of the Neva almost showed up for a meeting with CSKA in the final of the tournament. After an unexpected defeat in the group stage from Lokomotiv-Kuban, he had to beat by order, with a margin of at least 12 points, the now very combat-ready Partizan, led by the master of the European coaching workshop Zeljko Obradovic. And the wards of Javier Pascual coped with this difficult task, gaining the upper hand - 81:65. But the army team confidently advanced to the final, immediately scoring a key victory over UNICS - 76:71, even despite the absence of sick leaders Alexei Shved and Nikita Kurbanov.
In the decisive match of the Super Cup, the team of the new coach of the red-blue Emil Rajkovic again appeared not in the optimal composition, and Zenit had an advantage in this sense. But CSKA was led by the star Nikola Milutinov, who shot 12 points in the first quarter, and, first of all, thanks to the Serbian center, Muscovites won the debut segment 21:14. Petersburgers, on the other hand, could not find a throw and identify a sniper with a hot hand in their ranks. In the Kondrashin and Belov Cup finals, they were torn apart by newcomers Caleb Homesley and Thomas Wimbush, who scored 47 points for two, but now they have received increased attention.
In the second period, CSKA twice broke away from Zenit by 11 points and seemed to control the match, but there was no one to support Milutinov in the attack. The effectiveness of the army team fell sharply, and even the return of the Serb to the court after a necessary respite did not stop this fall. Petersburgers with two three-point hits in a row from Wimbush and Vitaly Fridzon reduced the gap to a minimum, and then pulled ahead. The same raging Wimbush at the end of the quarter took over almost the entire game and reached the mark of 12 points, which allowed his team to go for a long break with a score of 35:34.
However, CSKA started the third quarter very aggressively and made a breakthrough 8:0. Finally, Anton Astapkovich scored, on whom Rajkovich, apparently, counts as a player in the starting five. Finally, the first "three" was thrown by Casper Ware, as well as Milutinov, who exchanged the second ten points. Well, the center of the army team completely knocked out the grandmaster's "twenty". CSKA moved the opponent 10 points away, but before the fourth ten-minute period, Zenit still got closer. The red-blues were in the lead 55:49 and, of course, could not feel calm.
Yielding 49:58 at the start of the final quarter, the Petersburgers organized a chase. They nevertheless established a long-range shot, which Homesley, Wimbush, and Joe Thomasson are excellent at. The latter managed to score seven points in two attacks. When the initiative began to pass to Zenit, the Muscovites also hit from behind the arc. The leader's regime tried to turn on Ware, and Astapkovich generally abandoned what seemed to be a victorious “thrasher”. Indeed, in this way, CSKA regained the lead at the end of normal time - 70:68, and when only nine seconds remained before the final siren, they also fought back on defense. But then the army team, in fact, gave the victory themselves. They made an embarrassing loss by breaking the five-second rule on a kick-in, after which Wimbush, who ended the match with 20 points and was named MVP of the tournament, hit from wide. Zenit defeated CSKA again - 71:70, now receiving the Super Cup for this.