FC Barcelona rallied from a double-digit margin in the fourth quarter to beat CSKA Moscow 81-73 at Palau Blaugrana on Wednesday. Barcelona improved to 8-2 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings while CSKA dropped to 5-5.
Barcelona rallies past CSKA, 81-73
Nikola Mirotic led the winners with 21 points, Brandon Davies added 14, Kyle Kuric 13 and Nick Calathes 10 for Barcelona. Johannes Voigtmann paced CSKA with 21 points and Toko Shengelia added 17 for the guests. Barcelona led 38-27 at halftime, but CSKA buried 8 three-point shots in the third quarter - Voigtmann buried 4, Shengelia 2 and Marius Grigonis and Nikita Kurbanov 1 each - to lead 51-60 after 30 minutes. Mirotic had 8 points in a game-changing 19-3 run that put Barcelona ahead for good, 70-64, and he made sure his team held on late.
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Iffe Lundberg got CSKA going with a put-back layup and Sertac Sanli and Calathes soon gave CSKA its first lead, 4-3. Toko Shengelia stepped up with a reverse layup that Calathes erased with a floater. Marius Grigonis and Shengelia helped the visitors gain a 7-9 lead. Jokubaitis hit back-to-back shots, but Shengelia banked in a running shot and got help from Grigonis and Will Clyburn to set an 11-13 CSKA edge. Jokubaitis kept pacing Barcelona with another jumper, fixing the score at 13-13 after 10 minutes.
Davies scored in the low post and Kyle Kuric dunked off a steal for a 17-13 Barcelona lead early in the second quarter. Clyburn and Kuric traded three-pointers and Daniel Hackett added a fastbreak layup for a 20-18 score. Kuric downed a jumper and Calathes added a put-back layup for a 24-19 Barcelona lead. Sanli matched Lundberg's driving layup with a tip-in and Mirotic stepped up with a couple of layups and a bomb from beyond the arc, boosting his team to 33-24. Kuric and Voigtmann exchanged three-pointers and Davies banked in a shot to fix the halftime score at 38-27.
Kuric struck again from beyond the arc immediately after the break. Voigtmann buried three consecutive three-pointers in a 0-11 run that gave CSKA hope at 41-38. Calathes stepped up with a layup, but Shengelia scored in the low post, then a red-hot Voigtmann followed a fast break slam with his fifth triple for a 43-45 edge. Shengelia also struck twice from downtown to force Barcelona to stop the game at 45-51. Davies and Rolands Smits tried to change things for the hosts but Clyburn and Nikita Kurbanov boosted the margin to 49-57. Grigonis improved on Calathes's layup with a turnaround three-pointer at the end of the third quarter for a 51-60 CSKA lead.
Grigonis made it a double-digit game, 51-61, early in the fourth quarter. Sanli buried a three-pointer and then Mirotic added his trademark backdoor layup to bring the hosts within 58-61. Nigel Hayes-Davis buried a mid-range jumper and Davies completed Barcelona's comeback with a hook, 62-61, after an 11-0 run. Shengelia struck from downtown, but Mirotic followed a tip-in with a jump hook for a 66-64 edge. Mirotic kept pushing his team and Jokubaitis added a layup that made it a 6-point game with over 4 minutes left. Shengelia swished a three-pointer, Mirotic somehow hit an off-balance shot and Davies gave Barcelona a 75-67 margin with over 2 minutes remaining. Shved hit a jumper but Davies matched it with a jumper to seal the outcome, 77-69, as CSKA did not recover.