Turkish Airlines EuroLeague: CSKA Beats Olympiacos, Now 5-0

Round 5 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague 2018-19 regular season began on November 1st with four games. One of those games was critical as it involved current league leaders, CSKA Moscow. They had a homestead defense against a tough visiting opponent in David Blatt and the rest of Olympiacos S.F.P. Pireus. It was a low-scoring affair that saw Russia’s army club stand tall and proud at home as they defeated Olympiacos, 69-65. CSKA surges to a 5-0 start in the EuroLeague, while Olympiacos finds itself in unfamiliar territory with their 3-2 record.

These clubs are considered two of the top teams in all of Europe, so whenever they lock horns you can expect competition to be fierce. As expected defense was the name of the game in this contest, so the low scores should not be a surprise.

CSKA’s Sergio Rodriguez sparked a 17-4 run in the third quarter to provide the Army men with a decisive advantage. The veteran Spaniard paced CSKA with 20 points and five assists. Most of his scoring came from long-range as he went 6-for-10 from downtown. Two of those 3-pointers were instrumental in sparking that aforementioned run. Will Clyburn chipped in with 17 points and Cory Higgins added 11 of his own.

Vasilis Spanoulis was the top producer for Olympiacos with 16 and six assists but even the legendary Spanoulis could not carry his team all the way.

The other three games were all home wins as well. FC Barcelona crushed a visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv 74-58. Fenerbahce Istanbul narrowly survived at home against Bayern Muenchen 88-84. And last but certainly not the least,  Baskonia had the biggest blowout victory of the night with an 82-56 trouncing of Darussafaka.