MOSCOW, January 26 (R-Sport) - CSKA Moscow lost its unbeaten record in the Euroleague Top 16 with a decisive 94-81 defeat at home to Spain’s Unicaja Malaga.
CSKA’s first defeat in 10 Euroleague games drops the Russians to second in Group E behind unbeaten Real Madrid, while Unicaja rises to fifth, with a 2-3 record in the Top 16.
CSKA was behind throughout the game after a 27-17 thrashing in the first quarter.
“I am responsible for the fact that I was not able to prepare my team mentally to face a very dangerous opponent,” CSKA coach Ettore Messina said on the Euroleague website.
“We scored 81 points and usually it is more than enough to win a Euroleague game.”
Unicaja coach Jasmin Repesa said his players had started to believe in themselves again.
“We practiced hard and we realized that the series of losses was connected with bad luck, travel, tiredness, different reasons,” he said on the Euroleague website.
Former Real Madrid guard Marcus Williams top-scored for Unicaja with 28 points, and also chipped in with three rebounds and four assists.
For CSKA, Nenad Krstic led the team with 26 points and six rebounds.
