Cibona - CSKA: 82-111

It would be determined tomorrow if CSKA would play for the first or for the 3rd place at the tournament in Udine. It depends on the result of the game Snaidero – Udine. CSKA lost by 9 points to Italians and won by 29 against Cibona.

Cibona – CSKA: 82-111 (27-26, 22-11, 32-22,31-22)



Cibona started the game with the attacks from 6-meters line. All of the rivals before the game did not do so so it took CSKA a while to modify the defense for this kind of shots. In the fist quarter the Croats shot 3 out of 5 long distance shots, three other quarters the team finished with the result 2 out of 11. But anyway at the start the shots helped Cibona to become a leader after the first ten minutes – 27-26.

In the second quarter CSKA showed the impressive defensive performance.Cibona was able to score only 7 points in the first 9 minutes of the period. Of course the Army club managed to create the margin – 48-38.

After the half time break the culmination of the game came. Cibona tried to put maximum effort in the offence but it is very hard to overscore the team that shoots 83% field goals. By the end of the quarter it was clear that Cibona would not come back – 80-60.

It was important for CSKA to built the gap as there is a chance for the team to join three teams tie-breaker in the tournament. The final result of 29 points shows how much CSKA wants to play in the final game of the tournament.

CSKA head coach Ettore Messina :

- I am satisfied with the game tonight. The players were focused on basketball after the loss yesterday in a very tough and dirty game. I am also happy with the way we spend the practice today in the morning. We are about to complete the plan we had for the camp in Italy.

Our veterans played a good game. I mean Panov, Langdon, Andersen and Smodis, who helped a lot even despite the fact he was able to play only 10 minutes. Egor Vyaltsev also showed good performance as a playmaker. I guess now he understands that it is better both for the team and the player himself if he plays like tonight. I would like also to say some words on Anatoly Kashirov. He played only 3 minutes in the end of the game. But even in this short period of time he showed that he understands what we need him to do. I guess he would be able to help us during the season. It is a pity Vladimir Dyachok was not able to play versus Cibona. He put too much effort to the game at Udine and today his back started to hurt. We decided not to let him get into the game.