CSKA vs. Espoon Honka: 73-53
Dmitry Shakulin, CSKA interim coach:
If you look at the stats you can see the minuses. No three-pointers made, 15 turnovers, too much offensive rebounds by the opponents. Still I enjoy different stats – 23 assists for 30 field goals. And the things you could not measure by stats – different mood, confidence, fire in the eyes. After the second quarter in the locker room I showed to the players the share of points scored by Sokolov and Vorontsevich. I turned their attention to the fact that Langdon is now catching the ball in better spots, he scores in the fast brakes. I asked them not to hang their heads after the turnovers and to find some positives in their misses from the perimeter because most of the shots were taken as a result of team work. We used big rotation, with exception of ‘iron man’ Holden who will be fresh again after a day of rest; we used Siskauskas and Shved who come back after injuries but did not overplayed them; Bykov and Zabelin who were barely playing before played with great focus. I think the game was just like we want before the most important games of the season.
Pekka Salminen, Honka head coach:
The games like this are the great adventures for us. CSKA is the great club with big traditions, so we are happy just to have a chance to play against it. I think we played pretty well for most of the game. We are building something back home and we are honored to play in this competition against the clubs like CSKA. For us it is the part of big process which will help us in future.
