ZADAR, Sept. 20 -- Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow tamed CBA champions Liaoning Flying Leopards 90-46 in the opener of the fifth edition of the Zadar Basketball Tournament on Thursday.
There were some 200 spectators at the Kresimir Cosic Sports Hall to witness the first appearance of the Chinese basketball team at Zadar Basketball Tournament and a few Chinese tourists didn't miss the opportunity to see for how long can CBA champions follow the pace of one of the best European teams in the last two decades.
CSKA won the first quarter 25-11 and then totally dominated the second quarter to lead by 46-16 at the halftime.
In the third and fourth quarter, the Chinese players performed better and almost doubled their score from the first half scoring 30 points for the 46 in total.
He Tianju led the all scorers in the game with 18 points, 6 rebounds and Cong Mingchen came close to double digits score with 9 points for Liaoning.
"This was a chance for our players to learn from CSKA which is a great European team. Unfortunately, we have a few injured players so we couldn't bring our strongest lineup to Zadar. We played against the high quality team and this was a valuable experience," said Liaoning Flying Leopards head coach Guo Shiqiang after the game.
"They were very physical, they played aggressive defense and didn't lean on individual qualities but played really a team basketball which was surprising and something new for us."
Corey Higgins led CSKA scorers with 15 points, Andrey Vorontsevitch added 13 and Ivan Ukhov ha 12 points.
"I would like to thank coach Guo Shiqiang for his kind words and I would like to congratulate him on winning the CBA champions trophy. We did play as a team and forced 24 turnovers. We didn't shoot well but our offense was good," CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis said after the game.
The team from Moscow will play on Friday against German side Bayern Munich and Liaoning team will have a day off to enjoy the beautiful weather and visit some of the historical sites in Zadar. CBA champions will play the next game on Saturday against Bayern.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, Fenerbahce Istanbul and Olimpia Milano play in the other group of the six team Zadar Basketball Tournament. On Sunday, the third placed teams in the group phase will square off for the fifth place overall, second placed teams will play in a 3rd place match and winners of the groups will fight for the trophy.
Last year it was Fenerbahce who won it, beating CSKA 76-72 in the final.