The fight was there. But the result remained the same
CSKA – Zenit St.Petersburg: 82-73 (+9)
CSKA: Ware (14 + 3 rb), Antonov (10 + 2 as), Milutinov (16 + 17 rb + 6 as), Kurbanov (0), Shved (17 + 5 rb + 8 as + 2 st + 2 bs) – start; Khomenko (0), Freeman (DNP), Ukhov (0), Clyburn (19 + 5 rb + 3 as + 3 to), Lopatin (DNP), Jerebko (6 + 6 rb + 2 as), Kolesnikov (DNP)…
Zenit: Loyd (6 + 3 rb + 10 as + 4 pf), Kulagin (9 + 2 as), Buckner (2 + 4 rb), Mickey (6 + 2 as), Monya (2 as) – start; Carter (2 + 3 rb), Zaharov (2), Karasev (20 + 4 pf), Baron (5 + 2 as), Zubkov (8), Poythress (9 + 11 rb + 3 as + 3 st), Fridzon (4 + 3 rb + 2 bs)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Congratulations on the win to the players, the team. As I said, we took the second quarter in a long series. We controlled the game, we started strong, we did not give anything easy to the opponents in the third quarter, where we came close to 20-point difference. I repeat again, we are not blind and not naive, we know that Zenit has enough qualities to fight in the next games. They have excellent shooters - Loyd, Baron, Carter, Karasev, Kulagin. Today we defended well, contested the shots, won the rebounding battle. In the next game, we need to set the tone again and play even better, because the opponent will raise the quality of the game. We have to fight in every position, be aggressive. It's nice that today the fans, as I wanted, came in even greater numbers and helped us a lot, thanks for that.
