By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
For Itoudis things are simple and it’s all about defense: “We had a sloppy start at the beginning and after that, we managed to control the tempo and reduce their creativity. Therefore, keeping them to 11 points in the second quarter was a key. We forced a lot of turnovers against a team that is not turning the ball over that often – I think they had 16”.
Still, he wants his team to play better: “Overall, it was a win we needed and as I said, it was not our best performance, especially on offense. We could do better but had our moments. We were up 18, 68-50, if I am not mistaken, but a win is a win. We are going to sit down and see what was good, what was bad and work on it. So, congratulations to the team”.
Itoudis was also asked if his team tried to save energy for the next EuroLeague contest against Real Madrid. “It is not about saving energy; the game against Real Madrid is six days from now. We want to go out there and play seriously in front of our fans. I want to say thank you, 7,000 fans came over here to applaud and see the team. We cannot expect to always have a brilliant performance, but it was enough to control the game from the beginning, playing seriously to get the win”, explained the Greek coach.
Nando De Colo commented on how CSKA should play every game like it is the final: “Brose Bamberg has a good team and will never give up. If we remember the first game, when they came back after a tough first half, they played really strong and that is what they did tonight, too. It doesn’t matter how the game was, they always play hard, so it is a good win for us tonight. Every game is a like a final and we need to play hard in every game. We played a good game tonight.”