CSKA beat UNICS too

CSKA managed to beat UNICS in the game that as a matter of fact decided the destiny of the first place of Superleague regular season. Despite players from Kazan hadn’t been leading during the match even for a second, the intrigue remained till the final whistle.

CSKA - UNICS: 92-81

Quick facts about the game:

• CSKA made 27 two-point attempts. It is a team low for CSKA this season in all the official games

• CSKA made 28 three-point attempts. It is a team high for CSKA this season in all the official games

• Tomas Van Den Spiegel was first time included to the line up

• Matjaz Smodis and Zakhar Pashutin scored their 100th points in Superleague this season

• Nikita Kurbanov scored his 100th point in all the official games this season

• JR Holden made his 100th assist in all the official games this season

Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:

- This game was rather difficult. UNICS has good snipers in its squad, even tall ones. Our opponents tried to use this advantage from the beginning of the match. We could only try to adapt to their tactics. And I think we were successful. I’m pleased with the performance of all my players. But I would like to mark out Nikita Kurbanov who helped us a lot tonight.

- Why didn’t you use Van Den Spiegel today?

- He spent only two trainings with the team and, moreover, this game wasn’t the best one for centers in general. Alexey Savrasenko, who played rather well in two previous games, was on the court only for a short while. The best way to play against UNICS was using Smodis more often.

Stanislav Eremin, UNICS head coach:

- It wasn’t the best game for both teams. I think CSKA gave us a chance to win but our defensive problems didn’t allow us to use it. My players didn’t manage to stop Smodis and Panov. That means we didn’t work as hard as we had to, we didn’t understand each other on the court. When we tried to cut the difference to acceptable score for attacking CSKA leadership, we started to make more mistakes then our opponents did. I mean we made wrong decisions on the court.