From immediately after the opening tipoff, they sought to make up for the absence of their injured comrade, center Nikola Milutinov. By game's end, his frontcourt mates Toko Shengelia and Johannes Voigtmann had done all that and more, inspiring CSKA Moscow to a 96-100 road win over defending champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul. The duo combined for 40 points and 13 rebounds as CSKA consistently won a rebounding battle that few would have predicted when Milutinov, a record-setter on the boards, was injured. 

Shengelia, Voigtmann covered CSKA's hole in the middle

Shengelia and Voigtmann split their team's first 11 points, assisting each other's first shots made, as CSKA established early and consistent leads. They were instrumental again as CSKA built a high lead of 59-75 late in the third quarter. And Shengelia stopped Efes's late comeback try with a put-back dunk and free throws in the game's last half-minute. All told the duo had a combined 56 performance index rating, which was more than any three players together for Efes, showing that their aggressiveness is enough to make up for losing an anchor in the paint. 

ASVEL survives road battle to beat ALBA, improve to 2-0, 67-71

Chris Jones scored a career-high 24 points in the win, and Elie Okobo had 13 points with Kostas Antetokounmpo chipping in 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. ALBA could not make use of a club record 19 offensive rebounds in falling to 0-2. Maodo Lo came off the bench to score 22 points while fellow reserve Oscar Da Silva had 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals on his team debut. 

Dylan Osetkowski opened the scoring from deep for ASVEL, with Luke Sikma doing the honors for the German champion. Both teams looked a bit nervous early on with a combined 10 turnovers in the first 5 minutes and ASVEL up 4-7. ALBA finally started to score and Lo’s three-pointer gave the hosts their first lead, 9-7. Lo added free throws and another triple and ALBA was up 16-9 - with the lead 18-13 after 10 minutes. Lo continued his excellent surge with a layup to start the second quarter and Louis Olinde’s score had the hosts up 24-17. But after committing 12 turnovers in the first 12 minutes, ASVEL finally started to score with Okobo hitting six straight points in a 0-13 run for a 24-30 advantage. Lo came back off the ALBA bench and hit a three-pointer to end the rut, but Matthew Strazel connected from long range at the other end and ASVEL was up 29-34 at the break. 

Gallery

ALBA had a strong start to the second half with Da Silva scoring four points in a 6-0 run for a 37-34 lead. Okobo’s three-pointer finally got ASVEL on the board and the guests stepped up its defense with a 0-11 run over more than 5 minutes for a 37-45 cushion. Tamir Blatt came back at the other end for five points, reducing the gap to 43-49 after 30 minutes. The tough ASVEL defense continued and Charles Kahudi, Okobo and Jones all drove to the basket as the margin grew to 43-57. 

Lo ended ALBA’s bad run with a three-pointer after almost 4 minutes, and the hosts tried to make things interesting as Sikma pulled it within 50-57. Jones responded with two big three-pointers to keep the lead in double figures, 53-63. The hosts would not go down without a fight, and Lo’s layup made it 59-65. But Jones hit a dagger triple with less than two minutes left for an 8-point lead. Lo put the pressure on ASVEL with a layup to get within four points, before Jones hit two free throws with 8.8 seconds left. 

ALBA Berlin v LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (2021-10-08T18:00:00.000Z)

This is what the protagonists of the game had to say after the dust settled.

Parker on win at ALBA: "We fought till the end"



### TJ Parker, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

“Twenty turnovers is way too many in a game like this. And Berlin, you have to give them credit. They played with a lot of intensity. Our team made a good fight and got the stops we needed to get the W. We can win games in the EuroLeague with defense. Offense comes and goes. If we can take care of the basketball and make shots, we’re a good team.”

“I am glad we were able to win this game. Especially with all the turnovers that we had and with the offensive rebounds we gave up. But we fought till the end. It's a big win for us.”



### Israel Gonzalez, ALBA Berlin

“We couldn’t make our shots. We chose a bad day to miss our shots. But I’m happy with the effort of the team and the defense we had today. We can improve but I think we are on a good path. The thing is we need to score when we are open.”

“Congratulations to ASVEL. They had a good effort to win the game. But I feel like a soccer coach. Sometimes you have so many shots on goal and the goalkeeper stops everything and the other teams scores once and you lose the game. That’s how I feel right now. We shot 22 more shots than them - most of them were good shots. A couple of them were not very good shots, but we missed. But I think we are on a good path. With all the problems that we have at the center position and without Marcus [Eriksson], we are doing good. We have to be patient and know that if we play more games like this we will have a lot of chances. But today I feel a little bit unlucky.”



### Kostas Antetokounmpo, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
“We’re just trying to play hard together as a team. We’re trying to work at the defensive end. We made some mistakes, but our defense helped us.”

### Chris Jones, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne
“The objective was to get stops and keep them off the offensive rebounds. We really didn’t do too good of a job with the offensive rebounds - especially on the road. But we got stops when we needed them, and we executed down the stretch. We believe in each other. We have confidence. We’re trying to build something right now. Today was a big win for us and hopefully we just keep it going.”



ASVEL was rock solid around the basket on offense, hitting 21-of-31 shots for 67.7% on 2-pointers. 

Telling numbers: ASVEL's inside shooting

The ASVEL defense also did enough to disturb ALBA’s shooters into hitting just 6-of-33 three-pointers (18.2%). The guests were especially good on ALBA shooters not named Maodo Lo, as the rest of the team made just 2-of-25 from long range (08.0%). 

ASVEL committed 20 turnovers and allowed ALBA to grab a club record 19 offensive rebounds. But TJ Parker’s team gave up 'only' 14 second-chance points (to six of its own) and it was rock solid around the basket on offense, hitting 21-of-31 shots for 67.7% on 2-pointers. 

Friday's Round 2 game was the first opportunity for Anadolu Efes Istanbul to play a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game before thousands of fans since taking home the club's first continental title last spring. A crowd estimated at 7,500 fans due to a local restriction of 50% capacity at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall certainly felt like a full house as they saw their heroes. The night began with a ceremonial pre-game banner-raising as the EuroLeague trophy on a pedestal at mid-court and the fans serenaded the champs. Then, just before tipoff, Euroleague Basketball CEO Jordi Bertomeu presented Ergin Ataman with the 2020-21 Alexander Gomelskiy EuroLeague Coach of the Year trophy as the fans washed the Efes boss with praise from the stands. 

Efes fans celebrated the champs

The celebratory nature couldn't last long with an opponent like CSKA Moscow in the house, but when Efes almost came back from 16 points behind to tie late, that limited crowd sounded like a lot more, pulling for the team that had given them so much joy last spring. It was not to be on this night for Efes, but the good vibes were certainly back where they belonged. 

ALBA’s offense was spluttering for much of the game and the only real engine keeping the scoreboard going was Maodo Lo, who three times snapped long scoreless droughts for the home team. 

Lo and behold … Maodo ties career high

ALBA’s offense was spluttering for much of the game and the only real engine keeping the scoreboard going was Maodo Lo, who three times snapped long scoreless droughts for the home team. 

In the end, he came off the bench to lead ALBA in scoring with 22 points - tying his personal career high - while also picking up 2 rebounds and 3 assists. He also would not let the team go down without a fight, hitting a layup with 9 seconds left to make it just a four-point game. But he didn’t get enough help.

Chris Jones came up huge for ASVEL as he led all scorers with a career-high 24 points. ALBA were fighting to make it close in the fourth quarter but Jones drained 3 three-pointers - twice re-establishing a 10-point lead and the last one making it 59-68. 

Pivotal Performer: ASVEL's Jones was huge

Jones then finished the job for good with two free throws with 8.8 seconds left. He also chipped in 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal for an index rating of 20, which was one off his career best.

Despite missing two stars, CSKA Moscow rose up to win a thriller, 96-100, on the court of defending champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul to claim its first victory of the new season on Friday. CSKA evened its record at 1-1 while Efes fell to 0-2. 

CSKA takes down Efes in thriller, 96-100

The visitors led by a high of 16 points late in the third quarter but had to withstand a furious late rally by Efes to take the victory back to Moscow. Toko Shengelia had 23 points and Will Clyburn added 18 while Johannes Voigtmann and Iffe Lundberg sored 17 each for the winners. Efes wasted a 32-point show on 7-for-11 three-point shooting from Vasilije Micic while Adrien Moerman added 14 and Shane Larkin 12 for the hosts. CSKA lost big man Nikola Milutinov to injury in Round 1 and traveled without major off-season acquision Marius Grigonis to Istanbul, while Efes was without Krunoslav Simon. 

Shengelia strung an open triple and Micic downed a layup to start the scoring. Voigtmann took over from there with 6 points as CSKA went up 8-13. Petrusev and Shengelia exchanged inpressive dunks before Micic hit the home team's first three-pointer for a 15-15 tie. Voigtmann returned from deep as CSKA stayed up and fed Shengelia for a fastbreak dunk for the biggest lead yet. Shengelia's free throws made it an 0-11 run and a 15-26 CSKA lead, but Micic answered with a four-point play to which Adrien Moerman added free throws as Efes cut the difference to 21-26 after 10 minutes. 

Dunston dunked and blocked a shot to release Rodrigue Beaubois for a transition layup. James Anderson kept it going with a three-point play off a fastbreak that completed a 13-0 run for Efes's first lead, 28-26. Will Clyburn took it back from deep for CSKA before he and Ivan Ukhov pushed the visitors in front 31-36. Free throws and a full-court press kept it close until Beaubois rained a three at 37-38. Nikita Kurbanov and Micic traded triples at 40-42 before Larkin's 4 free throws tied 44-44. But Clyburn outdid him with 7 in a row the hard way to let CSKA lead 46-51 at the half. 

Shengelia opened the second-half scoring, too. Micic and Voigtmann drilled triples, but the CSKA big man repeated his and Iffe Lundberg downed 2 layups to complete a 2-12 run to 51-65. Micic went deep again to get Efes closer at 57-69 but his fourth foul and a technical on home coach Ergin Ataman resulted in a 57-72 CSKA lead. Tibor Pleiss and Larkin, with his first field goal after 7 misses, tried to revive Efes, but Alexey Shved heated up for CSKA to lead 68-79 after 30 minutes.

Larkin fed Pleiss for a dunk to lower the difference to single digits as the fourth quarter began, but Lundberg kept CSKA safe with a triple at 74-86. Micic answered from deep and Shengelia matched him as Lundberg hit another to make it 77-92. Beaubois did the same and soon Micic joined him, but CSKA seemed well in charge at 85-94 with little more than 2 minutes left. Moerman quickly converted a three-point play and Micic dunked to suddenly make it 90-94 with 1:28 to play, prompting a CSKA timeout. Clyburn hit 1 of 2 free throws after drawing Micic's fifth foul before Moerman buried another triple at 93-95 with 52 seconds left. Shengelia was even more timely with his put-back dunk with 35 seconds left, but Moerman's free throws with 18.2 left kept it a one-possession game, 95-97. Shengelia's free throws with 8 seconds left settled the matter for CSKA. 

Itoudis after win at Efes: "A very interesting game"


### Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA Moscow

"It was a very interesting game, another one between Efes and CSKA. We're getting used to that: high score, thriller, you know. I think that we were the better team today, so congratulations to my players. I think we played to the level of physicality that is necessary to play such a game on the road against a defending champion. We came over here short-handed, but the guys kept believing. We got to the third quarter and built such a confident difference, let's say, double-digit margins all the time. And after that, their stars put a little bit of pressure on us, we made some wrong decisions. Probably, we were a little bit tired because of the small rotation; maybe that's on me. But I think that overall, we were the better team. We handled the situation well and we managed to accomplish a good win and prove to us that we can really play ball."



### Ergin Ataman, Anadolu Efes Istanbul

"Defensively, we played a terrible game. To give up 100 points on our own court, it's very difficult to win. Especially in the first half, we gave them 8 offensive rebounds and 15 points after those rebounds. So I think that today, we didn't answer them physically, and our shooters, except Micic, missed a lot of shots. Shane was 0 for 7 on three-point shots. Anyway, in the last quarter we tried to come back, but it was not enough. Also, we gave them 37 free throws. I don't know; I think that our defense was not good. We made too many fouls; 37 free throws in that kind of game is too much. So, it was not a good game for us."



### Johannes Voigtmann, CSKA Moscow
"For us, it's a good way to finally get the first win. And against a reigning champion, it's always a good win, especially on the road. This team is very talented and it's very tough to stop them. We struggled a little bit, especially at the end, to stop them. But we somehow found the way to be better on offense than we were in Milan. I think that was it. It was tight at the end. We gave up this big lead. We're just happy to be back winning."

### Tornike Shengelia, CSKA Moscow
"It was a thriller game. You have to give credit to Efes; they never gave up. But neither did we. Even though they came back to within a couple of points, we kept our cool and followed the game plan that Coach gave us, and executed. We moved the ball. Everyone contributed defensively and offensively. Johannes [Voigtmann] did an amazing job on the boards, Iffe [Lundberg], Will [Clyburn], everybody. On the defensive end, things that don't show up in the statistics, we did it. We fought for the 50-50 balls and I think that at the end of the day, that's what made the difference."

