Ramunas Butautas: We were able to stop their best scorers

Ramunas Butautas

06-11-2007 00:41 | ulebcup.com

ASK Riga head coach Ramunas Butautas:
"This is our first ULEB Cup game and the fans really helped us tonight, encouraging us to win it. The game was difficult from the very beginning, as they were doing their best on defense. We managed to reach our usual level in the second half, but of course, we won the game on defense. We spoke before the game that if you let the other team score a lot in the first half, you are in trouble, especially when you play against a good offensive team like Lukoil Academic, which is able to score 90 or 100 on any given night. We were able to stop their best scorers and I can say that all of my guys did a great job on defense. I must thank my players, but this is only the first game and I hope we will play even better from now on, hopefully making it to the next round. This is not the place to analyze the game, of course, but I was surprised to see how athletic Lukoil was. That gave us trouble in the first half. My team is well-prepared to face this competition and this game was extremely important for us. It wasn't easy: the opponent does not make mistakes on purpose to help us out. They were a strong team that fought until the very end. I want my team to work hard for 40 minutes, not just 39."