We'll meet on Saturday
N Novgorod – CSKA: 76-72 (-4)
N Novgorod: Astapkovich (19 + 6 rb + 4 as + 3 to), Strebkov (8 + 3 as + 4 pf), Toropov (9 + 7 rb + 3 as + 4 pf), Vorontsevich (6 + 5 rb + 3 as + 2 st + 3 bs + 4 to), Baburin (7 + 2 as) – start; Shepherd (13 + 2 as), Komolov (6 + 5 as + 5 pf), Chadov (4 + 3 rb), Gontar (DNP), Petrasek (DNP), Gerasimov (0), Gavrilovic (4)…
CSKA: Ukhov (12 + 4 pf), Hackett (9 + 2 as), Voigtmann (6 + 5 rb + 5 st), Clyburn (11 + 5 rb + 3 to), Kurbanov (10 + 14 rb + 2 as + 3 to) – start; Lundberg (5 + 2 as + 4 pf), Khomenko (1), Hilliard (1), Antonov (7 + 3 rb), Kochergin (DNP), Shengelia (10 + 5 rb + 2 as), Lopatin (DNP)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Congratulations to Nizhny. Tonight unfortunately for my team we shot the ball very poorly. Even though we went out to hustle defensively, we outrebound them, we forced turnovers in the second half - when we miss free throws it hurts a lot. We had the game where we wanted even though we performed poorly offensively. We were “plus-5” in the clutch moments but we turned the ball over twice… It’s playoffs and we need to be concentrated. That was one of the worst performances offensively that we had. Just to hustle is not enough. We need to be better. We’ve seen two different games. In Game 1 we outscored them and tonight we weren’t composed enough to make right and wise decisions.
