CSKA — Zenit, 05 May 2018

CSKA vs. Zenit St.Petersburg: 100-84 (+16)

CSKA: Antonov (16 + 3 rb), Rodriguez (19 + 8 as + 6 to), Higgins (11 + 3 as), Kurbanov (6 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Hunter (10 + 4 rb) – start; Fridzon (5 + 2 st), Westermann (DNP), Korobkov (DNP), Vorontsevich (7 + 4 rb + 5 as + 2 st + 4 bs), Clyburn (18 + 3 as + 3 st + 4 pf), Kulagin (3 + 2 as), Khryapa (5 + 3 rb + 4 as + 2 st)…

Zenit: Voronov (10 + 2 as + 4 st + 4 pf), Simonovic (5), Griffin (9 + 7 as + 4 st), Kuric (13), Gordon (9 + 6 rb) – start; Karasev (10 + 2 as + 5 pf), Desyatnikov (2), Vikhrov (6 + 3 as + 4 pf), Whittington (7 + 5 rb + 3 to), Harper (9 + 2 as + 4 pf), Valiev (4 + 6 rb + 2 as), Konovalov (0)…

Congratulations to the players, we got another win and we continue our fight for the first spot in VTB League regular season. The game was quite strange. First, we planned to start Leo. He had some problem with muscle spasms recently during the practices, but he still worked with the team. Today during the warmup our medics informed me that he can’t play. Then in the beginning Cory felt some dizziness. Most probably it was because of the heat in the gym, he needed to breath and drink some water. Then we had two quick fouls of Othello. Taking into consideration that we still don’t have Nando and Kyle, we had to change the rotation. On the other side, despite the obtacles that we don’t use as excuses, we had other players stepping up. Misha, Victor, Voro, Simon, Vitaly gave us some quality minutes. Will stepped up, Sergio and Nikita played well. We allowed 49 points in the first half and 35 in the second which says a lot about our improvement. Our main goal right now is to become a team of healthy players.