The Yellow & Blue worked hard and attained a 4th quarter advantage but couldn’t preserve it in the final minutes. Wilbekin scored 20 points, Dorsey added 16
Scottie Wilbekin, Tyler Dorsey, Angelo Caloiaro, Othello Hunter, and Ante Zizic opened in Maccabi’s starting five. On the other end, Daniel Hackett, Darrun Hilliard, Nikita Kurbanov, Tornike Shengelia, and Joel Bolomboy began for the Russians.
Wilbekin drove to the bucket and knocked in a three, tallying 5 consecutive points for the Yellow & Blue. However, Bolomboy and Shengelia attacked the rim and scored 6 points in the paint for a 1 point Russian advantage, 5:6. Hackett and Kurbanov added, but Dorsey drilled back to back triples that gave Maccabi an 11:10 edge. Hillard punished with 7 consecutive points, as Chris Jones pulled up from midrange to close out the first 10 minutes, 15:20.
Jones found the rising Hunter who acrobatically laid it in, Johannes Voigtmann answered hitting an open three, and Bender grabbed an offensive and tipped it in, 19:23. Will Clyburn’s 5 straight points rose CSKA’s advantage to 8. Still, Wilbekin got it going from the defensive end, stealing two consecutive possessions, distributing the ball for easy fastbreak points by Bender, and Elijah Bryant, which cut the hosts lead to 4, 24:28.
In the final minutes, the Yellow & Blue kept on diminishing the host’s advantage as Zizic grabbed his third offensive board of the half and slammed it home, as Dorsey completed a three-point play to end the half down by 1, 30:31.
Zizic connected twice from the free-throw line, which gave Maccabi a 32:31 lead, Bolomboy three and Hackett from the line restored the advantage, but Bryant scored 4 consecutive points to tie the game at 36. Both teams exchanged points from the charity strike, as Mike James knocked in 7 straight for the reds, 38:43. The visitors went on a 5:0 mini-run, Dorsey drilled two free throws, and Jones finished at the rim, 42:43. After James hit two more from the line, Bender closed the quarter with a three-pointer, 44:45.
Shengelia completed a three-point play to open the fourth quarter, but Maccabi’s Croatian’s went to work on both ends of the court, starting an 8:0 stretch, which gave Maccabi the lead; The Yellow & Blue ran plays inside to Zizic, who scored 6 points as his countryman Bender prevented CSKA from scoring with back to back defensive stops, 52:48.
Clyburn stopped the run with a triple as Wilbekin got into a zone offensively, scoring 8 for Maccabi, opening a 5 point lead, 58:53. Yet, Clyburn and James took control and turned it around, leading a 13:4 run, grabbing a 4 point lead, 62:66. Wilbekin and Dorsey tallied two from the free-throw line, but James (4th triple) and Clyburn shot over Zizic from deep, giving the hosts a 72:66 lead with 37 seconds left.
Dorsey hit a quick three-pointer cutting the edge by half, Clyburn notched two from the line, but Wilbekin hit a shot from deep, reducing the Russian lead down to 2, 20 seconds left. But Clyburn stayed perfect from the charity strike knocking in his 8th and 9th shots concluding Maccabi’s last chance, 76:72 CSKA.
