"It's very difficult to maintain a good pace for all 40 minutes": Popovic and Prokopenko on the victory over CSKA-2
Zenit-2 head coach Oliver Popovic shared his emotions after the home victory against CSKA-2 (81:78). The St. Petersburg team’s coach noted that the pace of the game changed after the big break, but in the final stretch, the blue-whites picked it up again.
— Today we played against a very talented team. They are physically strong in basketball terms and have an excellent coach. The game was evenly matched, and they could have won as well. We were luckier, but it's clear that one player can make a big difference — Ryzhov helped us a lot today. From an emotional standpoint and in terms of the standings, it was very important for us to win today. Congratulations to the guys. Well done, they played as they should.
— Each quarter was different from the other. At the start of the match, there was excellent defense that allowed you to take an early lead. But in the third quarter, there was a slump. What do you attribute this to?
— Yes, even the pace of the game in the third quarter was worse than in the first — for both us and CSKA-2. We just have a very short rotation. It's very difficult and tough to maintain a good pace for all 40 minutes. At the same time, I repeat that CSKA-2 is a very strong team physically. They constantly apply pressure all over the court. They are very uncomfortable to play against. In the last quarter, we picked it up a bit again, and our offensive decisions were solid.
— Ahead is a 12-day break before the match against Dynamo in Vladivostok. How will the team spend this pause?
— We will have serious problems with training. Three players are heading to the national team training camp in Moscow. So, we will probably have a very small group. We'll try to train properly.
Zenit-2 guard Ivan Prokopenko also summed up the match against the army team. In today’s game, he became the top scorer on the court, recording 21 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal.
— It felt great to win after five losses in six games. We pulled ourselves together and finally found our team play. Today we showed a good result.
— In the third quarter, CSKA-2 made a 12:0 run. How did you overcome that moment and fight back in the rest of the game?
— You know, when you're playing, you don't really feel it. You're still focused on the game, and that slump wasn’t particularly noticeable to us. It didn’t affect us. We just kept playing our game.
— Today, you were the top scorer on the court. How do you evaluate your performance, and did you expect such a game from yourself?
— I didn’t really expect it, to be honest. But the team trusted me with those shots, and I was able to make them. Overall, I’m happy with my game.
