The Red Army night

CSKA vs. Barcelona: 92-78 (+14)

CSKA: De Colo (18 + 4 rb + 11 as + 4 st + 3 to), Antonov (10 + 3 rb), Rodriguez (6 + 4 as + 3 to), Clyburn (22 + 3 rb + 3 to), Higgins (20 + 5 rb), Kurbanov (4), Hines (6 + 6 rb + 5 pf), Hunter (6 + 4 rb)…

Barcelona: Seraphin (11 + 6 rb + 2 bs), Pressey (8), Hanga (10), Heurtel (11 + 5 as + 4 to), Oriola (6 + 7 rb + 4 pf), Sanders (9 + 4 rb + 3 st + 2 bs), Koponen (10), Tomic (6 + 5 rb + 3 bs), Moerman (7 + 3 rb)…

Congratulations to the team and sincere “thank you” to the fans. We had 12 thousands spectators tonight and they provided huge help. We managed to win all quarters with exception of the first one that finished 24-24. We were focused both on defense and offense, we controlled the rebounding, we kept the ball. But at some moment we had to fight through adversity. Othello could not continue because of foot injury, he has to go to MRI so we realize how serious it is. Cory – sorry for mentioning that – vomited in the locker room at half time, he probably got poisoned with some fruit. It was obvious that we need extra effort to win, and we managed to do it. Everyone brought something to the game. We risked sometimes, we gave something to Barcelona. But you can look at the stats to see how good we were in containing our opponent. Barca has full package – they play inside and outside, they have creators, shooters coming off the screens, spreading the floor. We had 11 steals and they got 15 turnovers, so we made them turn the ball over. We also had 23 assists and won rebounding battle. We beat Barcelona but most importantly we beat adversities and I am thankful to the team for that.