CSKA Moscow ties VTB League series

CSKA Moscow scraped a victory in Game 4 of the VTB League quarterfinal to tie its best of five series with Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. It has been a productive few days for the Moscow giant in the competition as the club came back from 2-0 down in the series to secure a 2-2 score line with one game left to play.

The club has been under pressure of late after trailing 2-0 in the series after two home defeats and crashing out of the Euroleague. However, two tight wins have put CSKA back as firm favourites to be the final team to progress to the VTB League semi-final. As for Lokomotiv, the club has shown its known fighting spirit in running CSKA close over these two games, but nevertheless the club has let its home advantage slip.

Lokomotiv Kuban vs. CSKA Moscow, 78-79
Lokomotiv Kuban was looking to tie up the series in this game and the hosts started the stronger, outpacing CSKA in the opening quarter to lead 23-20 at the end of the first frame. The home team gave the Krasnador crowd even more hope in the second quarter as the lead was extended through the ten minutes. With the half time buzzer sounding, the Kuban club held a solid 42-34 lead and Moscow had a big second half ahead. CSKA came to life in the third quarter and hit 28 points in an explosive period where the visitors restricted Lokomotiv to just 12 points (54-62) to take the lead with just one quarter left. In the fourth stanza CSKA faced a crowd stirring rally from Kuban, but the Moscow players held on to secure the narrowest of victories.

Nenad Krstic led CSKA Moscow with 26 points and was followed by Milos Teodosic 17 and Viktor Khryapa with 13 points.

Krunoslav Simon top scored for Lokomotiv Kuban with 18 points, while Richard Hendrix and Valery Likhodey secured 13 apiece.