CSKA — UNICS, 08 December 2014

Successful debut by UNICS in the main game of December did not lead to fantastic battle. Our team destroyed the opponents after the halftime leaving the fans with no hope for interesting finish.

CSKA vs. UNICS (Kazan): 75-51 (+24)

CSKA: De Colo (9 + 6 rb + 5 as + 4 to), Fridzon (4 + 3 rb + 3 to + 4 pf), Nichols (8), Jackson (15 + 8 rb + 4 as), Weems (19 + 4 pf), Vorontsevich (8 + 5 rb + 3 st + 2 bs + 3 to), Kaun (6 + 3 rb), Hines (6 + 6 rb)…

UNICS: White (8 + 4 rb), Langford (4), Zisis (5), Bykov (5 + 3 rb), Panin (2 + 3 rb), Sokolov (8 + 5 rb), Kaimakoglou (2 + 4 rb + 3 st + 4 to), Antipov (1), Fisher (11 + 4 rb), Jerrels (5)…

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Warmest and well-deserved congratulations to the team. I liked what I saw and I said to the team in the locker room after the game: you’re not gonna always have good shooting nights, you’re not gonna have solutions for every problem but defensive base will always help you win. We looked like chameleon today, the creature which changes the colors depending on the environment. We adjusted well, defended, deflected the passes, rebounded and ran the open court. Still we were facing the team of Euroleague level which came to Moscow having 5 wins in a row, with great motivation and desire to set the slow tempo of the game. We managed to make the opponents have 17 turnovers which is a big number. We won the second half 47-21 and that gives us extra motivation to work hard for the future. At the same time I would like to note that we missed 6 layups in the first half, we shot free throw with bad percentage, so it would be better at halftime. Again, I will mention our great comeback and defensive effort.

Sasha Kaun, CSKA Moscow center:

We started bad today, missed a lot of shots from under the basket, we were kind of unfocused. After the first quarter we started to restore the situation like it should be from the beginning. We were close to making the score even. In the second half we showed the level we must always show. We proved that if we play on such level it’s really hard to beat us.