Trajan Langdon hit two free throws with 5.8 seconds remaining to lift CSKA Moscow to a 73-69 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv on Sunday and give the Russian club its first Euroleague championship in 35 years.
Langdon, who finished with 11 points, sealed the victory and enabled CSKA to capture its fifth championship after losing in the semifinals in each of the past three years.
"We played with our heart and our soul tonight," said CSKA's Theodoros Papaloukas, who led his team with 18 points and seven assists and was selected the Final Four's most valuable player. "I had lost three Final Fours before this, but I won't remember them. We did it and we deserved it."
PHOTO: AFP
Having also won the title in 1961, 1963, 1969 and 1971, CSKA equaled Maccabi and Italian club Varese with its fifth crown, three fewer than all-time leader Real Madrid.
Tel Aviv was trying to become the third team in Euroleague history to win three straight titles, following Yugoslav club Split (1989-1991) and ASK Riga from the Soviet Union (1958-1960).
CSKA's defense limited Maccabi's Anthony Parker and Nikola Vujcic to a combined 14 points, and caused 20 turnovers.
On Saturday, Parker and Vujcic were selected to the Euroleague's honorary First Team and Parker was chosen as the season's Most Valuable Player.
"They slowed us down, made every shot tough for us and they played great down the stretch," Parker said. "It's a disappointment to come up one game short like this. Everyone wants to win it all when you get to this point."
The Sazka Arena in the Czech capital was dominated by a sea of yellow as the Maccabi fans dominated the crowd of 20,000.
The victory gave CSKA coach Ettore Messina his third Euroleague title in his first season in Russia, adding to the crowns he won with Italy's Kinder Bologna in 1998 and 2001.
"It had been 35 years since our club CSKA won this title. We played smart and that led us to the title against a great Maccabi," Messina said.
Maccabi coach Pini Gershon was trying to become the second coach to win three straight Euroleague crowns and match Riga's Aleksandar Gomelski.
Earlier Sunday, Tau Ceramica captured third place in the Final Four by beating Winterthur FC Barcelona 87-82.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but