Andrea MAZZON
Avtodor head coach:
“It was a very good game. It was important to win the game as it is always important to get a victory. We played together for the first time. I believe it was very good for us that the game was close. So we got an experience how to act the most efficiently during the last minutes of the game. It was a valuable lesson for us. We made some good offensive choices and played smart, that’s well. Obviously our physical conditions are still not really good. Every player was trying to find himself inside the game thinking of what is he doing, what should be his position on the court, where should he stay. Sometimes we made some silly mistakes. We missed too many threes. From the other side we allowed them to make a lot of open shots from the arc as well. We missed 9 free throws that are not typical for this level of basketball.

Of course, we definitely need to get better. For sure we should give a credit to BC Samara. They had strong motivation and made a lot of threes tonight. They played really solid. We will have another game against BC Samara at home next week and that’s very important for us to find a chemistry. Honestly speaking we had the first practice in full roster only on Thursday. For sure there is enough time for us to practice and play together before the start of the Basketball Champions League Qualification Round.

Beside this I was really happy to see the young basketballers from Saratov watching our game here in Samara. It was very beautiful to get them together with our players. I am happy we have an opportunity to be an example for the young generation. I am also glad to see the 16-year old Nikita Mikhailovskiy in our roster who was a starter tonight and scored his first points for senior team. Although he is young he has all chances to play in the VTB League this year. And this is very important for the very young generation to see such examples before the eyes.”