Eurocup. 3rd place game. Lietuvos Rytas vs Spartak SPb15 april 2012

In a third-place game Lietuvos Rytas was stronger that Spartak SPb — 71-62 (24-10, 16-20, 15-14, 16-18) and became Eurocup 2012 bronze medalist.

Best scorers: Lietuvos Rytas — Seibutis (21), Rasic (12); Spartak — Beverley (18), Dragicevic (17).

Aleksandar Dzikic, Lietuvos Rytas head coach:

— For us it was an important game, though maybe not as the Eurocup game we played yesterday. Anyway, we wanted to go back to Vilnius as winners, not as losers. I told my players that, and they said: 'Of course!' So we played very motivated against a team we already played two times this season. For us, it's an important to win without Tyrese Rice because he's an important player in our game. The kids that stepped in for him, Dovydas Redikas and Steponas Babrauskas, did a good job, so congratulations to them.

It is not a big secret that Spartak St. Petersburg is Beverley as a centerpiece and the guys around him play well, with him and off him. At the same time, he's the kind of player who can score. So he's doing well. Also, Dragicevic is a player I like and respect. He's not flashy, but rather the type of player who is doing the hard work, what we call the dirty job.

VTB is kind of a specific competition for us. It's a league where CSKA Moscow is a big, big favorite. The fact that we are where we are in the VTB is a kind of success for us at this stage. Again, we're playing against Khimki soon and that's a team that's not going to be very hard to motivate my players for. Our schedule this season, especially in the last two months, is deadly. I cannot promise anything except that we will fight like we are doing every game.

Aleksandar Rasic, Lietuvos Rytas guard:

— It was a good game for us, we showed a better face. We played another game just 24 hours ago and I am sure that the tough game that Spartak had against Khimki yesterday affected us in a bad way. It was nice to finish this tournament with at least one win so we don't go home empty handed.

Jure Zdovc, BC Spartak head coach:

— First, I'd like to congratulate my colleague, Aleksandar Dzikic. They were better than us, stronger than us. We knew that after suffering last night, we would have problems in this game because Rytas plays physically very strong. We, with one point guard, for sure had big problems in this tournament. This tournament is very strong, and with our injuries, we had big problems at this position. Beverley played well, but he didn't have help. We tried, we fought. Except the first quarter, all the other quarters were correct. But we lost, and we must look forward.

Alexey Zozulin, BC Spartak guard:

— It's always hard to play games of this kind because it means that you lost in the previous game and that you are out of the fight for the trophy. We also played our last game not 24 hours ago. However, we tried to concentrate and do it as best as we could but Lietuvos Rytas is a good team and they found their place on court better than us.

Patrick Beverley, BC Spartak guard:

— It was not a good day of basketball for our team. I don't think our concentration was the best today. The gae of yesterday probably affected us. We were down by 13 or 16 points and then managed to take the lead but ended up losing the game. That was a big mental blow that we couldn't overcome today.