It's not easy to keep the lead

CSKA – N Novgorod: 80-72 (+8)

CSKA: Karpenko (0), Antonov (5 + 3 rb + 3 as + 2 st + 4 pf), Milutinov (21 + 12 rb + 3 as), Kurbanov (9 + 7 rb + 3 as + 2 st), Shved (26 + 7 rb + 7 as + 2 st + 3 to) – start; Ware (2 as + 2 st), Khomenko (2 + 2 as), Ukhov (4 + 4 rb + 2 as + 4 pf), Ivlev (2), Yevseyev (0), Clyburn (11 + 4 rb + 4 to), Lopatin (DNP)…

N Novgorod: Chadov (8 + 4 rb + 4 to), Khvostov (3 + 3 rb + 3 as), Strebkov (18 + 8 as), Toropov (9 + 7 rb + 5 pf), Baburin (8 + 4 rb + 3 as + 2 st) – start; Kardanakhishvili (0), Gankevich (3 + 3 as), Platonov (3 + 3 rb), Alekseyev (0), Antipov (0), Kulagin (20 + 3 rb + 3 as + 3 to)…

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Congratulations to the team and players for the win and fight. We had a very sloppy and cocky start. We were thinking about ourselves too much and we paid the price. Nizhny always fights, plays physically. This is also because of circumstances: we had 11 days with no games, no we will have 12 days with no games. Obviously the team is out of the rhythm. It helped us work out well, but… This happens for all EuroLeague teams, Zenit and UNICS are having pretty much the same [problems]. So they took over, went up 11 – 20-31, we ran 16-0. From that on we started playing defense, respecting ourselves. They scored a buzzer in the second quarter but they had just 15 points, another 15 points in the third, so we set the tone, we witnessed how the game should be played.