CSKA — Lokomotiv Kuban, 26 May 2014

Accordingly to tradition of the series’ Game 5s our team did not leave any chance to Lokomotiv and qualified for the VTB League semifinals.

CSKA vs. Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar: 84-65 (+19)

CSKA: Teodosic (12 + 7 as + 3 to), Gudumak (2), Fridzon (4 + 4 pf), Pargo (6 + 6 rb), Krstic (18 + 4 rb), Weems (11 + 9 rb + 5 as + 2 bs), Vorontsevich (15 + 5 rb), Kaun (4 + 3 rb), Khryapa (10 + 5 rb), Hines (2 + 4 rb + 2 bs)…

Lokomotiv: Grigoriev (3), Brown (10 + 3 rb), Williams (1 + 7 rb + 5 as + 3 to), Hendrix (3 + 6 rb), Kalnietis (7), Lihodey (18 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Zubkov (10), Zhukaneneko (3), Maric (3 rb), Ponkrashov (5 + 5 rb), Simon (5)…

Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:

My players did something special. After 0-2, after two home losses to start the series, after all the sadness of Final Four they deserve all credit, respect and congratulations. I am happy for them. The team played solid; we were patiently building the lead until Krasnodar finished playing. And I would remind you that we had excellent, Top 16 team in front of us. In my opinion Zhenya [Pashutin] is an excellent coach who won two Eurocups, who coached in the Final Four. Now we can be happy, enjoy the moment, but we have to become serious soon.

Nenad Krstic, CSKA center:

We controlled the game from quarter to quarter. It was our final game in series against Loko and I think we looked very relaxed and confident at the same time. It’s very good especially before series against UNICS. We will need this confidence and belief in each other. Even when we made some mistakes today we continued to play our way. I don’t think lots of things changed since Final Four we just show our character more than in Milan. We show up, believe in ourselves and play for each other. Everybody in CSKA played basketball together and it happened maybe firstly since a lot of time – we played as a team.