Third defeat in row wouldn’t allow our National team to receive an automatic berth for Japan, where the next World Championship will be held:
Russia – Lithuania: 78-89
That time Russians lost to Lithuanians, who couldn’t rely on about ten of their best players on this competition. But that fact did not help us – another discouraging defeat and now supporters can only hope that one of the four Wild Cards for teams that couldn’t qualify to Japan-2006 from their region tournaments will be given to our country by FIBA.
However CSKA players deserved some praise in this game too. In absence of injured Andrei Kirilenko, Zakhar Pashutin (27 pt + 3 reb) picked up his leading functions and became the best scorer of Russian team. Alexei Savrasenko (4 pt + 10 reb) was the best rebounder of the game – with his help our guys saved an advantage near the baskets, even without “Utah Jazz” forward. JR Holden (14 pt + 3 as + 2 reb), as usual, was trotting down the field with unbelievable speed and his shot selection was better than in yesterday’s match. But all these achievements of Army men didn’t bring success to our National team…
We can only hope that recollections about Eurobasket-2005 won’t be painful for every person, who is connected with CSKA. So we wish Papaloukas and Co good luck in the semifinal fight Greece vs France.
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