Vince Hunter: "The goal is just to be ready for playoffs"
The blue-whites center Vince Hunter told Zenit TV in an interview how the team managed to win the match against CSKA (66:79), and also noted the influence of Georgy Zhbanov and Alexey Shved in today's match.
— What made the difference today?
— I think we just came in here and we followed our game plan what we've been going over all week with the defense assignments. It was really just us focusing on defense. We pretty much got the scoring power to keep up with them. We just really had to just focus on defense and that's what we did The whole game.
— Now, you've proven that you can beat anyone in in this league away. So what does it mean? You beat CSKA, you beat UNICS and you beat Loko also.
— Well, yeah, we feel like we can beat anybody since the start of the season. But right now we're just getting better and trying to find our team chemistry and just keep getting better for these tough games down the line. And really the goal is just to be ready for playoffs. So that's our goal, just to be ready for the playoffs.
— You know Zhora (Georgy Zhbanov) for a very long time. Do you agree that he shut down Avramovic today again?
— Zhora needs a lot of my help. So he might have did a little bit of defense, but I help him out a lot (laughs). No, no, but like you said me and Zhora have been playing defense together for two-three years now. So we're pretty much like the main guys on the defense who got to lead the team and try to get stops and help around everywhere. I think we do a pretty good job. And when we do a pretty good job, we win the game pretty easily. I tip my hat off to Zhora. He's been working hard, been playing good pretty much the whole season and scoring the ball a little bit better. I'm really proud of him.
— Alexey Shved played against CSKA today. Did you feel that the fans, even maybe perhaps the players, they were a little bit afraid or scared of Shved?
— I mean, yeah, I think they should be scared. He comes with a lot of experience in the VTB and basketball period. So, you know, with that experience he really don't even have to play good. He still can just come along with his experience and help the team out and I think that's what he did today. We really needed a piece like him on the team just for experience and to get other guys to ball and stuff so it really helps with him being on the team.
