By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Following the victory of CSKA Moscow over Olympiacos that secured them the first place in the EuroLeague regular season, head coach Dimitris Itoudis congratulated his players for their accomplishment and also the fans of the team for the atmosphere they created MegaSport Arena/
“The first thing that I want to say is congratulations to the players. We accomplished another goal, which is qualifying with the home-court advantage, and I think that today, with the win, we secured the first spot, which we are talking about a lot. We have a lot of games remaining and need to show our character also in those games, but they deserve to be congratulated when in such a marathon, you accomplished another goal, so congratulations to the players. Congratulations to the fans, who filled the gym. It is nice to have such an atmosphere. I have to mention it all the time: we are growing and CSKA fans show that they like the players and the team.
When it comes to the win vs. the Reds, Itoudis pointed out the switch his players made down the stretch and correcting their turnover problems for the first half.
“Regarding the game, we had an issue with turnovers. Like I told you at halftime, we were losing possessions. Some of those turnovers were forced by their good defense and some others were unnecessary errors that we could have avoided. Overall, our bad momentum in the beginning was followed by some established game by our team, with good reads on offense and defense. Wherever we had the mismatches, we go on the block, we go to drive-and-kick, we shared the ball well, almost 20 assists again against Olympiacos, which I think it is one of the teams that doesn’t allow that many assists. We won the final three quarters, 66-55 if I am not mistaken. It was a close game, Olympiacos is a very experienced and talented team, but congratulations to my players. To be continued!”