Eurocup. BC Khimki vs Asesoft Ploiesti16 october 2013

BC Khimki suddenly lost in its first Eurocup 2013/2014 regular season game against Romanian champion CSU Asesoft Ploiesti — 89-97 (22-28, 21-27, 21-8, 25-34). The next game our team will play on the road within the bounds of VTB United League against BC Krasnyi Oktyabr Volgograd on Sunday, October 20, 2013. The beginning of the meeting is at 19.00 msk.

BC Khimki: Augustine (17), Green (17 + 7 assists), Koponen (16), Popovic (10).

Rimas Kurtinaitis, BC Khimki head coach:

— We started sluggishly; there was no individual responsibility or energy on defense. In the third quarter we have shown that we can do it, and we caught our opponent, as it should be, but in the final quarter we were down by 3 or 4 points. We have a short bench, we are tired, but the season has just started, so we cannot talk about fatigue, because we have to play with concentration. We made many mistakes, especially against the zone defense that our opponent used to bring down the tempo. Our combinations didn't work, and the players couldn't decide the outcome of the particular moments.

Egor Vyaltsev, BC Khimki guard:

— I do not know what to say. I would like to apologize in front of our fans who supported us great tonight. We tried to do our best, but something went wrong. We will watch the video, and try to draw conclusions.

Vladimir Arnautovic, CSU Asesoft Ploiesti head coach:

— First of all, I would like to congratulate BC Khimki on this game. It was a fair play game. I’m very happy because of the result. We started very well; in first two quarters we showed good offensive percentages, but our defense also worked well. At the same time BC Khimki missed some open shots. In the third quarter we lost our advantage very quickly but later again controlled the course of the game. At the moment I thought it was all we could do tonight. In the last quarter we started playing good zone defense and performed excellent in the offense. This is a very big victory for us, and a big surprise for all Eurocup. We came here to catch a good game, and to prove to ourselves that we could beat Euroleague players. This is the biggest victory for Asesoft until now because for me BC Khimki means Euroleague.