CSKA vs. Parma Perm region: 95-97 (-2)
CSKA: Bolomboy (8 + 6 rb), James (31 + 6 as + 2 st + 5 to), Hilliard (3 + 2 as), Voigtmann (8 + 5 rb + 2 st + 4 pf), Kurbanov (3 + 5 rb + 3 as + 2 st + 3 to) – start; Khomenko (DNP), Ukhov (3), Hackett (5 + 3 rb + 3 as), Antonov (2 + 3 rb), Clyburn (19 + 6 rb + 2 st + 3 to), Lopatin (DNP), Milutinov (13 + 5 rb)…
Parma: Juskevicius (11 + 3 rb + 3 as), Mejeris (11 + 4 pf), Zukauskas (10), Savovic (18 + 3 rb + 2 as) – start; Williams (9 + 5 as + 2 st + 3 to + 4 pf), Grigoriev (6 + 2 as + 4 pf), Johnson (11 + 3 as), Ivlev (2 + 4 rb), Sheyko (9), Chernyshev (DNP), Zhmako (10 + 8 as + 5 st), Bulanov (0)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Congratulations to Parma, they found winning spirit in themselves, they never gave up. We had our good moments like the play by Mike James in the end. But the important thing is to understand why we came to the point, that it became possible, why we stopped playing. We don’t have a right to take the foot off the pedal when we are up by big margin. Parma has quality, spirit, chemistry, toughness. I prepared my team talking about it, it did not work so I am taking it on me. We lost the game even after having some good moments, some great defensive plays. We had +20 with 7 minutes to go and after that we allowed 6 for 6 three-pointers, we had 7 turnovers and 0 assists. At some moment I brought back on the floor our most effective lineup, but we got great punch to the stomach, to the face. Parma came back, and I congratulate them again. I told my team: to be here in CSKA is just first step. The second step is to constantly prove that you belong to this level. So tomorrow instead of a day off we will watch the film and practice. This is our path to go through it.
