Struck beast is twice as dangerous. This fact was proved by CSKA with a great pleasure - by the win against Montepaschi with the bigger margin than those reached by the opponents in Siena.
CSKA vs. Montepaschi: 95-71
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:
“It was not easy for our team to play this game because of all the bad thinking after the losses in Siena and in Russian Cup. But at the same time it also motivated us. We need to thank all of the players, especially Smodis and Khryapa. Smodis suffered an injury on Saturday and we were sure he will not play. But he wanted to play badly. Khryapa received the hit in his eyebrow during yesterday practice, he received 11 stitches and again we were sure he will not play. But he wanted. I also want to thank our fans for an incredible support. I think that our lack of confidence before the game was compensated with the tiredness of Siena after their win in Italian Cup. The team believed that we can win this game in the last 3 minutes of the first half, when we went up by 8. And what is important we never thought about the point difference and we never stopped playing.”
Simone Pianigiani, Montepaschi Siena head coach:
“We tried hard in the first 20 minutes, moved the ball and the players well and even found a way to stop first CSKA surge with the zone defense in the end of first half. But in the beginning of second half we missed 3 or 4 open shots and CSKA was able to change the rhythm of the game, to score some open shots and to build a gap. And after we dropped 10 points down, we just stopped playing defense and offense, stopped making any screens and move the ball. Probably we were tired after the win in Italian Cup. But I cannot say anything bad about my players. They were very professional all the week away from Siena, we did not even allow ourselves a little celebration… You can lose in Moscow. Especially when CSKA plays its top-game. Now we should forget about the final 15 minutes and focus on the remaining games of Top 16. I think after this huge win CSKA 99 per cent will be the first in our group. And we should fight with the other team for the second place.”
