On Friday, St. Petersburg will host the 3rd Place Series Game 3.
Zenit (St. Petersburg) – CSKA (Moscow)
Time: 19:30 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, St. Petersburg, KSK Arena
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Igra, League website
Series Score: 1-2
Comment after Game 3:
Xavier Pascual, Zenit head coach,
– In the first half we did almost everything right on defense and offense, committed only thre turnovers. But in the second half we did the opposite: we lost control and made simple mistakes. After that it was impossible to come back – no reaction, no physical fight, no time, no everything. The team approaches this part of the season completely burned out – no players, no character, physically unprepared. That’s what happened today. As soon as one thing went a little bit wrong, we just stopped playing and finished the game.
Emil Rajkovic, CSKA head coach:
– I would like to congratulate my players and point out their character in the second half. We let the opponent score 11 points in the third quarter and 9 in the fourth quarter. I think it was a turning point in the game, made the difference, gave us the momentum we needed and we took the game to win.
Vitaliy Fridzon, Zenit guard:
– In the first half we controlled the game, played good basketball on defense and offense, moved the ball. But we lost the third quarter 11:22, and I think that had an effect on us. In the second half it was like we weren’t playing. We didn’t know what to do on defense or offense and we lost control of the game. We didn’t do what the coach told us to do, we started rushing shots and didn’t fight as aggressively on defense as we did in the first half. We started getting fouls and had no time to comeback. And the result was on the scoreboard.
Livio Jean-Charles, CSKA forward:
– It was a real battle. It was hard, nothing was easy. As the coach said we played good defense in the second half and that’s what got us the win. It was not easy, but we believed in each other and it gave us the result.
Motivation for the series for third place? I think it’s simple: We’re CSKA and we always fight. We want to win every game.
