Andrey Vorontsevich: "We lost our concentration in the first quarter"

Zenit forward Andrey Vorontsevich summed up the third game of the VTB United League semifinal against Lokomotiv Kuban (86:76). The player pointed out the reasons behind their first loss in the series and answered journalists’ questions at the post-match press conference.

— Lokomotiv grabbed 12 offensive rebounds on our end, while we only managed 6 on theirs. They were extremely motivated. We tried as well, but the first quarter was a disaster for us — we missed a lot of open shots. I guess because of that, we lost our concentration in the first quarter.

After that, the game was even, but you could see that once they built an 11-point lead in the first quarter, they essentially maintained that "+10" margin until the end. So the first quarter was probably not our best. Congratulations to our opponents once again. We'll draw our conclusions and start preparing for the next game right away.

— There were several significant pauses during the game when the referees were reviewing plays. Do those give you a breather or throw you off rhythm?

— No, of course not. Extra pauses always give players time to recover. You can take a breather, get some water, or receive instructions from the coach. So any breaks — especially in such a physical, fast-paced game — definitely help to recover a bit.

— In the second quarter you were down by 20, but managed to cut the deficit to 5 points. At the moment when you were trailing by 20, did you have any doubts about your chances to win?

— I never have doubts. I always aim for victory. Of course, when you're down by 20, you realize you need to reset and shift gears — probably start playing at triple speed. In moments like that, you feel like it's either going to be a blowout by 20 or 30 points, or you're going to fight until the end. And I think that’s exactly what we did — we fought, we didn’t lose face, and we didn’t back down in terms of character.