UNICS Kazan, Russia vs. CSKA Moscow, Russia

CSKA Moscow defeated UNICS Kazan on the road, 100-89. The Army Men raced to a 17-point lead in the 1st quarter and never looked back, picking up a convincing win vs. 2nd-place UNICS to stay atop the league standings.

Recap
1st place in the league and the inside track for the top playoff seed were at stake in Sunday's showdown. CSKA entered with a 22-2 record, taking on 19-2 UNICS in Kazan.

On Wednesday, UNICS was eliminated from the Eurocup after a loss at home to Zielona Gura. The nightmare for Kazan continued in the 1st quarter of Sunday's game. CSKA came out on fire, piling up 28 points on 8-14 shooting. UNICS couldn't find the bottom of the basket in the opening period and trailed by 17 at the end of the quarter, 28-11.

The visitors continued to score at will in the 2nd quarter, led by big man Kyle Hines. UNICS trailed by as much as 24, before rallying to cut the deficit to 17 at halftime. Quino Colom gave the home team a boost on offense, scoring 11 points in the period to keep CSKA from putting the game out of reach.

UNICS battled hard in the second half, cutting the deficit to 11-12 points several times. But the Army Men always had an answer, preventing Kazan from ever truly threatening. The home team never got closer than nine points after halftime, ultimately suffering a 100-89 defeat at the Basket Hall.

Star Player
Milos Teodosic. The Serbian playmaker dished out several signature no-look passes (he finished with three assists), but did the most damage on his own. Teodosic finished 7-8 from the field (including six 3-pointers) and 3-3 from the line for a team-high 23 points.

Stat of the Game
17 - CSKA's early lead proved too big for Kazan to overcome.

Quotes
UNICS head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
- CSKA deserved to win. Our opponent is playing well right now. We started the game poorly. We played slow and were behind, giving up several open shots. We couldn't stop Teodosic. We started playing better defense in the 2nd quarter and were more confident on offense, scoring 24-29 points per period. Our last two games have given us food for thought. Every team goes through slumps. We'll do everything we can to prevent our slump from lingering. I'm proud of my guys today for their toughness and drive to compete and not back down to the opponent.

CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
- Congratulations to my team on the road win. This was a game for 1st place. I'm happy that we beat a strong team with a good coach. We started strong. A lot was working for us on offense. Once we built our lead, we expected that CSKA would start coming back. We gave up some easy baskets, but overall we dominated on the court. We scored 100 points on the road. I don't think there was any doubt about the outcome during the game.