CSKA — Pari NN, 21 May 2015

In the VTB League semifinal Game 1 our team in ’trademark’ style gave up 17-point lead but managed to turn the game in its favor in the end.

CSKA vs. N Novgorod: 86-79 (+7)

CSKA: De Colo (8 + 3 rb), Teodosic (14 + 4 as), Fridzon (2 + 3 rb), Jackson (14 + 6 rb + 4 as), Weems (2), Vorontsevich (12 + 7 rb), Kaun (19 + 3 rb + 3 to), Hines (5), Kirilenko (10 + 5 rb)…

N Novgorod: Mekel (4 + 4 as), Parakhovskiy (14 + 5 rb + 2 bs + 3 to + 4 pf), Ivlev (1 + 3 rb), Antonov (7 + 7 rb + 4 pf), Hvostov (9 + 4 pf), Kinsey (10 + 3 rb), Rochestie (21 + 3 rb + 4 as), Kuksiks (3), Thompkins (10 + 10 rb + 3 to + 4 pf)…

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

We are up 1-0 and we played real playoff game. We will continue to fight, it’s a series and one win is not enough. We have a day to watch the film, analyze what we did good and bad, to make conclusions and play better on Saturday. I would also like to congratulate Nando with his well-deserved MVP award.

Alexander Kaun, CSKA Moscow center:

I think we had some problems today because Nizhny played zone defense and we were not ready. In the first half everything worked well – we played personal defense and scored off pick-and-rolls. Tomorrow we are going to watch video and decide the problem to prevent it.