CSKA vs. Real Madrid: 95-81 (+14)
CSKA: De Colo (28 + 7 as + 5 to), Teodosic (23 + 3 rb + 7 as + 4 st), Fridzon (7), Nichols (2 + 3 rb + 3 bs), Freeland (8 + 5 rb), Vorontsevich (11 + 5 rb), Higgins (2), Kurbanov (4 rb), Hines (14 + 5 rb)…
Real Madrid: Rivers (23), Ndour (2), Nocioni (7), Doncic (12 + 5 rb), Maciulis (4 + 3 rb), Reyes (2), Rodriguez (6 + 3 rb + 13 as + 5 to + 4 pf), Ayon (14 + 10 rb + 3 st + 2 bs + 3 to), Carrol (2), Thompkins (5 + 3 rb), Taylor (4)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
First, I would like to say Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it today – Russians, Serbs, others. Thanks to the fans who filled the gym tonight, who supported us – the game is meaningless without them and players feel their support on the floor. Congratulations to the players, we played better and deserved to win. We were more dedicated to defense in the second half, we forced the opponents to 17 turnovers, the difference in rankings was 113-79. But the numbers don’t reflect our defensive effort. Somebody can look at the boxscore and say that it was De Colo and Teodosic who decided the outcome. They did play well. But others, who did not score much also deserve to be praised. For example, Kurbanov was our defensive cornerstone as well as Nichols, they rebounded, deflected, switched, denied. It was obvious how we missed Vorontsevich who helped a lot both on defense and offence. And we can mention many. There were some moments when we allowed our opponents to score easy baskets, and in our Top 16 group every rebound, every point is crucial. This is why I took time out in the last minute, this is what I was saying to the team. We have 12 more final games on this stage.
