To Istanbul!

CSKA qualified to the Euroleague quarterfinals after the game against Real. This time the task was to climb to the first position in the Group in order to have the home court advantage in the up coming serie. The goal was not to loose the game in Pesaro for more than 21 point. Of course CSKA succeed. The final result is 84-66 in the Army club favor.

Scavolini vs CSKA: 66-84

The best scorer of the game was Antonio Granger with 22 points. The American forward did a great job. At first he helped CSKA to even the score in the first quarter. By the way Scavolini started the game with a 5-0 run. And after that Granger 3-pointers and CSKA defence was the reason for Scavolini to give up with a quarter to go in the game. The maximum CSKA lead came was archieved with 1.52 to go in the 3rd quarter – 68-37.

The second best scorer was Martin Muursepp with 12 points. Marcus Brwon added 11.

CSKA relaxed only with 3 and a half minutes to go and let the rival to make a final 9-0 run. But of course these points meant nothing to determine the winner.


CSKA head coach Dusan Ivkovic:

- I want to congratulate my team. We did a great job finishing atop this group. We deserved this win, because we dominated from the beginning. We did turnovers and lost rebounds only in the last minutes, because the game was finished and under our control. Scavolini was already satisfied for the qualification, so they didn't play their best game, but Pesaro still remains the positive surprise of the Euroleague and I congratulate them because they qualified as the sixteenth team after regular season and amazed everyone beating Barcelona and Real Madrid. Best wishes for the future. Why have we lost against Barcelona? Because we lost concentration and they played better than us. Our approach was decisive and we did what they wanted. The loss arrived in the right moment and had its positive sides because we got reorganized. Media were counting our winning streak and a loss has brought the team back on Earth.

Scavolini head coach Marco Crespi:

- We started well, with 5 minutes of good defense, but we didn't close the fastbreaks. Then CSKA's defense and our bad shooting broke the game, and if you relax everything seems uphill. This game showed that CSKA has not only invested more than every team, but that CSKA has 11 players, 11, and each guy defends great, which is difficult to perforate to find the basket. It's a wonderful example of quality, big and good players playing together and giving effort. CSKA reminds me of Ettore Messina's Kinder Bologna, one of the finest teams in Europe during the last years. I hope the negative streak stops here. I use to be shy and reserved, but I want to thank our crowd for tonight's contribution and their Barcelona trip. We have not understood yet what it means to join the top 8 teams, this game showed how high is the level and how big has been our result. It's a conquest of our team, our club and our crowd. I can't hide thinking that Montepaschi and Climamio didn't advance, and it is for me something special. Now Maccabi Tel Aviv? They're the defending champs, they play in an arena with a decisive crowd and has two players fun to look at, Parker and Jasikevicius, combined with other very good players. We will find the pleasure to play this playoff.