CSKA (Moscow) won their seventh title in the Euroleague. The Reds recorded a victory against Fenerbahce (Istanbul) 101-96 after a drama in the final match, which was played in “Mercedes-Benz Arena” in Berlin.
Nando de Coló was the top scorer for the new champions. He scored 22 points, while Milos Teodosic and Kyle Hines added respectively 19 and 15 points. Cory Higgins finished with 12 points.
Bobby Dixon was the best for the Turkish team. He scored 17 points for “Fener”. Pero Antic and Luigi Datome added 16 points and Ekpe Udoh recorded a double-double – 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Both teams came into hard battle for every centimetre of the pitch from the first whistle, as the strengths were very equal. In the middle of the first part of CSKA Moscow took the lead – 15-11 after three-pointer, scored by Teodosic. After near 3 minutes Datome equalized. 22 seconds before the end Victor Khryapa scored for 22-20 in Reds’ favour.
At the beginning of the second half Fenerbahce pressed their opponent in an attempt to get closer to their opponent, but their efforts did not bring the desired result and then CSKA still leaded with a solid advance – 53:36.
Just 6:37 minutes before the end, the match was interrupted after nerves spread to the stands. A supporter of the Russian grand sitting in the first row in “Mercedes-Benz Arena”, tried to hit a basketball player of Fenerbahce, which almost led to riots in the hall.
The emotions in the stands were under control for the next few minutes, and after the resumption of play CSKA Moscow managed to hold their opponents before the start of the decisive ten minutes. The Reds were ahead by 16 points – 69-53.
Zeljko Obradovic’s players definitely went better in the decisive final quarter, with 5:40 minutes to go, the difference in the result was melted to eight points – 66-74. Besides all this, the problems of Russians continued to pile up – Andrey Vorontsevich left the game for five fouls, while Teodosic and de Colo were with four fouls. Fenerbahce continued to press their opponent and it seemed possible they could turn things around, after Udah, Datome and Dixon almost equalized to 76-79, with 3:25 minutes remaining.
Then, Fenerbahce lead for the first time after two points, scored by Sloukas – 83:81, but in the last second Khryapa put CSKA level again – 83-83.
The Turkish team led again by three points at the start of the extra five minutes after Sloukas’ three-pointer, but de Colo and Higgins scored on several occasions and made the result 95-90 for the Russian grand. Then the Russians demonstrated an excellent game in defence.
In the remaining time the symbolic guests from Russia demonstrated extremely strong nerves and despite the incredible shooting of Datome and Dixon from the trio of Fenerbahce, Euroleague title in season 2015/16 was lifted by CSKA Moscow’s players – 101-96.