We stood strong in Krasnodar

Lokomotiv Krasnodar vs. CSKA: 75-78 (+3)

Lokomotiv: Collins (20 + 6 rb), Ragland (6 + 4 pf), Lacey (16 + 4 as + 5 pf), Il’nitskiy (2), Elegar (6 + 4 rb + 5 pf), D.Kulagin (13 + 6 rb + 3 st + 7 to), Qvale (4 + 3 rb), Broekhoff (8 + 6 rb)…

CSKA: De Colo (17 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Westermann (3), Antonov (2 + 4 pf), Rodriguez (5 + 3 rb), Vorontsevich (5 + 5 rb + 4 pf), Clyburn (26 + 7 rb), Higgins (8 + 4 pf), Khryapa (4 + 3 rb), Kurbanov (8 + 7 rb + 2 bs)…

First of all, my congratulations to all who celebrates the Lovers Day. Second, I would like to thank Krasnodar for great basketball athmosphere in the gym. Regarding the game, congratulations to the team with the victory. We had to play without our three important players, but we showed charater and played a good game. I told the guys in the locker room that with all due respect to Kyle, Othello and Pasha it is not important who is injured, it is important who is healthy. All 12 players (I can even say 13, including Gankevich who was not on the lineup tonight). We were down 5 in the halftime and we seriously talked in the locker room. We had to make corrections. And we changed our approach both on defense and offense. Defensively we were able to stop their drives and had a 13-0 run. Offensively, we started to use the shot clock smarter. I can’t say that our offense was bad in the first half: we found open shots but did not make it. So we started being more patient. We made 3 of 16 threes in the first half and 4 of 11 in the second which is better. Loko had more free throws tonight, probably we fouled more but still we controlled the game and deserved the victory. Surely, the opponents tried to come closer but Will and Nando hit big shots and we had the control of the game in our hands.