Sabonis Cup-2005: we’ll take on Lithuanians in final

30.09.2005
Alexey Shved (photo cskabasket.com)
CSKA junior team became the first finalist of the international tournament Sabonis Cup-2005, which is underway in Kaunas these days. A couple of hours ago army men in a hard fight defeated their coevals from BC Kyiv:

CSKA – BC Kyiv: 74-67

ÖÑÊÀ: Shved (21 +5 reb + 3 st + 3 as), Nelyubov (14 + 9 reb), Babynin (9), Zakharov (7 + 3 st), Khodorov (6 + 6 reb), Pekhov (6 + 7 reb + 3 bs), Gusev (5), Òyumentsev (4 + 7 reb + 3 bs), Golovin (2 +3 reb + 5 as)


Post game commentary of coach Andrey Maltsev:

- As was expected, the match turned out to be rather difficult. Ukrainian players slightly stunned our guys when they opened the game taking a seven point lead. However soon boys came to their senses, rallied and tied the score. Then we took full advantage practically till the end of the fourth quarter when Kievers tried to survive and send the game to the overtime. But guys, and I am glad to speak about this, were very solid in key minutes and didn’t allow our former compatriots to move closer than 5-6 points gap. Today we didn’t control the boards for the first time in this tournament, but it didn’t help our rivals. I am pleased that our team finally showed its’ strong character.

Both Shashkov, who will participate in a slam dunk contest this evening, and Polokhin didn’t come out on the field today. But at the same time Golovin, who expressed a desire to help his teammates, recovered from his injury and was allowed to play by our doctors.

Final match will begin tomorrow at 16:00 Moscow time. Our rivals will be the hosts of the tournament from Sabonis BS, who crushed their contemporaries from Marciulionis BA - 90-67.