Bozidar Maljkovic: In the first game we played against the favourite of our group

At the post-game press conference Bozidar Maljkovic, head coach of Unicaja had to admit that his team got tired after the Spanish Cup and could not play good defense. “We knew it would be very difficult. But anyway to lose 20 points at home is unpleasant. I had already said that the calendar we had drawn was not favourable for Unicaja. And it happened so. In the first game we played against the favourite of the group. In my opinion CSKA is one of the best teams in Europe now. They have nine players playing with their national teams and Alexander and Holden are two of the best American players in Europe. In my opinion Benetton, Barca, CSKA and Panathinaikos have more quality than the rest of the teams and they play in Final Four this season.”

Unicaja forward Stephane Risacher who scored three from seven three-pointers to the CSKA basket in the first quarter noticed that it was always hard to lose, even more by many points at home independent on who the opponent was.

Despite many good words said to his team Dusan Ivkovic, head coach of CSKA called the won game just the first step on the way to Final Four. “There are five games with strong opponents ahead and I would like to watch a person who thinks these games are easy. About the game today, we started letting them score too much in the first quarter. After that we played better. We only had 5 turnovers against such a defensive team as Unicaja. I don’t think Unicaja is out of the Final Four and they often play better on the road. CSKA is a well-balanced team with many talented players but do not forget it was formed only half a year ago. It is just Zakhar Pashutin who played for CSKA last season. We managed to do much, the players got winner mentality but might are thankful to the administration of the club that they do not set the target to qualify to Final Four because obligations press the players much. On the whole I am satisfied with the way we played today and can congratulate our players.”

CSKA forward Darius Songaila said that it was a good game. Though it was not so easy in the first quarter but then the team managed to control the game.