Andrey Martiuk: "The road trip was very tough, happy to be going home"

Blue-White-Sky Blues center Andrey Martiuk shared his emotions after the away victory over Uralmash (79:86) in an interview with Zenit TV. In the recent game, he recorded a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

— Andrey, congratulations on the win. What are your first impressions?

— It was a very tough game, a very difficult road trip for us. So many transfers, planes, long bus rides. Winning two games against Igokea and Uralmash is very good and very satisfying.

— This is your fourth double-double of the season. How do you assess your performance?

— Fourth? I just learned that from you now. That’s nice. I like grabbing rebounds — it’s kind of my element. The more you play with the team, the better you understand how the team attacks and where to grab the ball, how to choose the best position for a rebound.

— In the first half, the main threat came from Timofey Gerasimov. Did you focus on shutting him down during halftime?

— I don’t know, maybe we didn’t play defense as we should have in some moments. Perhaps that’s why he scored his points.

— What difficulties did you face in the third quarter?

— I got hit in the nose and spent half of the quarter just in the locker room.

— Zenit has several home games coming up. What’s your mindset going into them?

— With a great mood, because we have a direct flight back home to St. Petersburg. And we’ll be home for a full two weeks after such a tough journey, nights in hotels. It’s nice to return home. We can recover and play for our fans, who always support us at our games. Come to the games — we’re always waiting for you!