European season is over. We will be better

AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 83-73 (-10)

AX Olimpia Milan: LeDay (7 + 3 rb), Micov (14), Roll (11 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Tarczewski (7), Shields (11 + 7 rb + 3 to) – start; Punter (2 + 5 pf), Moraschini (11 + 3 rb), Rodriguez (14 + 3 rb + 6 as + 3 to), Cinciarini (0), Brooks (0), Evans (1 + 3 rb), Hines (5 + 5 rb + 4 as + 2 st + 3 bs)…

CSKA: Lundberg (13 + 4 rb + 2 as + 4 pf), Bolomboy (8), Ukhov (2 + 3 as + 2 st), Shengelia (18 + 9 rb + 3 as + 3 st), Kurbanov (8 + 4 rb) – start; Khomenko (3 + 4 pf), Hilliard (9), Antonov (0), Strelnieks (0), Voigtmann (12 + 6 rb), Clyburn (0), Eric (0)…

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Congratulations to Milan for this game. Obviously, it leaves a bitter taste for us as a club regarding wins. We came here, just like every team, to win the championship game. That is the target. The semifinal is a final, which was decided by some small details. The third-place game is a procedure which has to be followed with pride and professionalism. And this is what we did. Also concerned to take a load off some players - thinking about controlling some players who were coming off injuries. Regarding the game, Milan was better. We opened the game pretty good. We had a second quarter where we turned the ball over too much - a little bit their zone, a little bit our turnovers. Five was too high a number. We made our comeback in the third quarter. But again we were not shooting the ball well. They were good looks, open looks. But 6-of-26 beyond the arc hurt us a lot. It leaves a bitter taste but I strongly believe that this is a group of great characters and we will take something positive out of this Final Four - how we became a team, a group of strong believers. Things did not go our way regarding the results. But the preparation for the next season is starting now. And I hope that this is the last Final Four that we play without fans.