Zaporozhye coach: “I want to thank Dnepr for the victory”

Head coach of BC Zaporozhye Dmitry Shchiglinsky He commented on the matches against Niko-Basket and Prykarpattya-Hoverla in the Ukrainian Cup.

“The cup bubble was very difficult. In our first game against Niko-Basket, we did not play defensively aggressively enough for two quarters. During the long stop, we talked in the locker room and the team looked different: there was aggression in defense, they moved the ball better in attack, found open shots, ran more actively in fast breaks. This allowed us to reduce the gap, get ahead and take the game to victory.

Unfortunately, Anton Buts could not show his full qualities due to injury. In the second match against Hoverla, he spent only a quarter and a half time on the field and was subsequently unable to continue the match. This definitely affected our abilities. Our lack of rotation was obvious. Playing the second consecutive match in two days was physically difficult for the players. I have been emphasizing for a long time that I expect the players coming from the bench to play more aggressively, especially in defense, but so far this is not enough. The match failed for us; We lost to Hoverla. They played confidently in their own court, but we couldn’t shoot many shots under the basket and made a lot of turnovers, which led to easy points in the basket.

However, thanks to the “lucky loser” system, we had the opportunity to qualify for the Final Four in the Ukrainian Cup. This is a beautiful moment. I want to thank Dnepr for winning with the score we needed. Now we are preparing for the championship matches. We will play against Krivbas and Niko-Basket in Nikolaev. “There is very little time to prepare, so the main thing now is to recover well and be as prepared as possible for these games.”