Zenit — CSKA, 27 May 2025

Zenit Saint Petersburg – CSKA PBC: 80-82 (+2)

Zenit: Frazier (3 as + 4 pf), Karasev (3), Bacon (28 + 6 rb + 3 as + 5 to + 4 pf), Hunter (9 + 8 rb + 2 st + 4 pf), Vorontsevich (4) – start; Shcherbenev (0), Shved (5 + 3 as), Zakharov (5), White (15 + 2 as + 4 pf), Ryzhov (DNP), Zhbanov (7 + 4 rb + 4 pf), Poythress (4 + 5 rb)…

CSKA: Ware (6 + 2 as), Trimble (16 + 3 rb + 7 as), Astapkovich (5 + 5 rb), Jean-Charles (11 + 3 rb), M'Baye (14) – start; Mikhailovskii (DNP), Jekiri (19 + 10 rb + 3 to + 4 pf), Avramovic (7 + 4 rb + 3 as), Gankevich (DNP), Ukhov (2), Karpenko (DNP), Antonov (2)…

Andreas Pistiolis, CSKA head coach:

First of all, as always, I want to thank the fans who came to support us today. It's great to feel their support, they give energy to our team.

I would say that today we came to the game hungry for basketball, because there was a long break, and this was reflected in the first quarter. We played really great basketball. After that, we made a lot of mental mistakes. We made the opponent do what we needed. And yet, we lost the rhythm in offense, and it turned out that we played a little disorganized, because of this, the opponent was able to come back.

Today, the opponent showed their best qualities, came back from minus 20, and took the lead. At the same time, we also showed our best qualities, dealt with this situation and took the victory. Nevertheless, we are an experienced team, we understand perfectly well that now the score is only 1-0 and nothing more. We understand that the series will be long, we will prepare for the next game.

Casper Ware, CSKA guard:

We started well, but I knew they would come back. They kept trying to catch us and eventually took the lead. But we came back and won. There's a lot to learn from this game. It's great that we'll have to learn from the win.