“Nizhniy Novgorod” lost first game of the cup against CSKA – 60:96. MBA started tonight’s match with following players on the court: Alexander Khomenko, Daniil Kasatkin, Ilya Platonov, Andrey Lopatin, Anton Pushkov. MBA took a lead early in the beginning and gave opponent no chance to change situation in the first half – “Pari NN” got the advantage in the third quarter for the first time.
Last quarter was equal, but MBA got “+3” in the last minute and finished the game with the victory – 69:66. This result gave our team bronze medals of the Cup! Alexander Khomenko became the best scorer of MBA (17 points, 4 rebounds). He was also announced as the best shooting guard of the tournament.
Vasiliy Karasev:
- Our schedule is so tight this week – we played 3 games in 4 days. Yesterday’s game was also so difficult and took a lot of energy. Tonight we made good performance in the first half. Last 10 minutes was tough, but the team showed good defence. We have two more weeks before VTB United League start and we will use it for recovery.
Alexander Khomenko:
- I’m so happy with the final result. “Nizhniy” have well balanced roster, so it was so hard to beat them. Games like this give us confidence that we can play with every team in VTB United League.
Evgeniy Valiev:
- I’m glad to come back to St Petersburg. It seems to be good tournament for us. We have a little bit more time before first official game, so we have to use it in the right way.
