The first trip to another country was excellent for CSKA junior team. Showing their competitive spirit and strong “army” character, our guys pulled out a win in a final game against hosts of the tournament and received the first place trophy:
CSKA – Sabonis BS: 96-95
CSKA: Shved (24 + 4 as), Gusev (17 + 5 reb), Khodorov (14), Zakharov (12 + 5 reb), Babynin (8 + 4 reb), Pekhov (6 + 5 reb), Tyumentsev (6 + 7 reb + 2 bs), Golovin (5 + 5 reb), Nelyubov (4 + 5 reb), Shashkov (0)
Coach of CSKA young team Andrey Maltsev gave us details of the most important match of Sabonis Cup:
- It was a very close game from start to finish and it is clear that today we met, undoubtedly, the most skilled opponent of that competition. As an example – if you look only at stats, you will see that we were the better side in the second quarter. We were three points behind with just 40 seconds to go. But we were able to escape the loss. Golovin’s mid-range jump shot was decisive. Lithuanians still had 7 seconds for the last attack, but nothing came out from it.
Alexey Shved as the best playmaker and Ivan Nelybov as the best center both made it to the symbolic starting five. Alexey was also named the MVP of the tournament. Semen Shashkov was only the third in the slam dunk contest, but I am sure that if it was an important for us, we could easily win there too. But we had another goal – a victory in the whole competition, so we decided to give some time to relax for our high-flyers – Khodorov and Pekhov.
I want to thank everyone who was involved in preparation of Sabonis Cup. We didn’t have any serious problems or hardships during these days; everything was organized on a very high level and we were accorded a hearty welcome. The only little thing that I can wish to this competition is having more solid list of participants. And I think it’s just around the corner. By the way, as we were explained, it was the first junior tournament in Lithuania that was showed live broadcast on central television.
We are happy with the fact that guys’ performance and behavior on the field proved that they are the Team first, a group of talented prospects second. Players don’t watch every second their personal stats – they want to win every game they play most of all. So, I believe we are on the right way.
VTB Teams:
League&Tournament:
