"We had problems converting two-point shots": Popovic and Khodorich on the defeat in Novosibirsk

Zenit-2 head coach Oliver Popovic summed up the fourth game of the Fonbet Super League quarterfinals against Novosibirsk, which ended in a 77:73 victory for the home team.

— Congratulations to Novosibirsk on the win. Today they deserved the victory more than we did. We had problems converting two-point shots — a terrible percentage, only 37%. That’s one of the reasons. And in key moments, when we needed to defend as we had agreed, we failed to do so. So Novosibirsk rightfully came out on top today. We’re looking forward to the fifth game in St. Petersburg.

Blue-whites guard Artem Khodorich also commented on the loss to Novosibirsk.

— I guess we just lacked toughness. We failed to follow the coach’s game plan that we discussed before the match. The very low two-point shot conversion rate, in fact, didn’t allow us to win.