CSKA vs. Unicaja (Malaga): 78-86 (-8)
CSKA: De Colo (14 + 3 rb + 4 as + 4 to), Teodosic (10 + 7 as), Nichols (5), Jackson (3 rb + 5 as), Vorontsevich (7 + 7 rb), Higgins (17), Kurbanov (12), Hines (13 + 4 rb)…
Unicaja: Jackson (24), Hendrix (8 + 9 rb), Markovic (10 + 7 as), Thomas (2 + 6 rb), Suarez (6 + 4 rb), Smith (2 + 3 to), Nedovic (5 + 6 as), Vazques (7 + 3 rb), Kuzminskas (22 + 4 rb + 3 st)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Congratulations to Malaga, they played better, had better mindset, they were more decisive, made some big shots and deserved to win. Unicaja is 5-0 and they are the favorite not only because of that but because of the way they play on the court, of hard work, of continuation. A lot of hard work in front of us. The got a good lesson. We have to watch the film and play smarter. And we will play smarter. As a fact I would like to mention this: Nando De Colo, our main creator, did not go to free throw line for the first time this season. We all agreed unanimously that we have to clear the game. So we will watch video and see. Maybe Nando played as off the ball player and had no chance to shoot some free throws. Still as I said before two days ago this was a game of possessions. And Unicaja had 13 more possessions than us. We had more turnovers and less rebounds. I think that was the first game of the season when we lost rebounding battle. This was a good bell for us. We have to go on the court with different attitude, better mindset to win games. When something doesn’t kill you makes you better. We will rise up and play better. We must.
Cory Higgins, CSKA forward/guard:
Our biggest mistake today was giving them opportunities to take too many offensive rebounds, we let them too many possessions. We just should not let that happen. And it’s hard to win playing like that.
