UNICS — CSKA, 23 November 2023

UNICS Kazan – PBC CSKA: 66-79 (+13)

UNICS: Dimitrijevic (16 + 10 as + 3 to + 4 pf), Komolov (4), Kulagin (14), Labeyrie (7 + 7 rb), Bako (6 + 5 rb + 3 bs) – start; Reynolds (8 + 6 rb + 2 bs + 5 pf), Zaytsev (0), Tikhonenko (0), Stulenkov (DNP), Kolesnikov (DNP), Odinokov (DNP), Green (11 + 5 rb + 3 as + 2 st)…

CSKA: Ware (5 + 4 as), Ukhov (5 + 6 rb), Astapkovich (7 + 4 pf), Jean-Charles (12 + 5 rb + 3 as), M'Baye (17 + 6 rb + 3 as) – start; Mikhailovskii (DNP), Jekiri (14 + 6 rb), Trimble (13 + 4 rb + 6 as + 3 to), Ruzhentsev (4 + 8 rb), Antonov (0), Kardanakhishvili (2), Gafurov (DNP)…

Emil Rajkovic, CSKA head coach:

First of all, I would like to congratulate my guys for beating UNICS on their home court. We knew that a really difficult game awaited us, because, in my opinion, the Kazan team had been playing the best basketball in the VTB League so far. I think the hosts really missed Marcos Knight in today's game. But I don’t want to take anything off my guys, because we showed good team basketball and played good defense. I’m especially glad that the young players came out and helped the team. For instance, Kardanakhishvili played 13 minutes in such an important game for CSKA. We saw his energy and motivation and he really helped us. I no longer mention Ruzhentsev separately, because he is part of the rotation already and have his 15 minutes on the court. The defense allowed us to control the glass. In the offense, we tried to find the opponent’s weaknesses and attack them. In my opinion, it worked most of the time.