CSKA vs. Lietuvos Rytas: 75-73 (+2)
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:
Obviously it was a very difficult game. We can say that the opponents were close to the win due to their team effort and we won the game because of key individual performance. If you look at the stats, you can see that we had five players score 10 points and more and one other player who scored 9. Usually that says something about a good team game. We had a better shooting percentage than our opponents. Usually that says something about good quality of the game. But turnovers killed us in the beginnings of the first and second halves. And we played undisciplined at the end of third and start of the fourth quarters. We all know that the teams that are successful at the end of the season don’t allow so many turnovers and don’t allow the opponents so many chances on defense. We have to work to become this kind of a team. Still I can say that we played very good from the fifth to 15th minutes of the first half and we played better defense and were disciplined on offense in the end when we put the ball in Sonny Weems’s hands. I would like also to thank the club and the fans for the great atmosphere they created during the ceremony to greet our great former players Matjaz Smodis and Ramunas Siskauskas.
