| 16.09.2011
Spain Power Forward Serge Ibaka:
"It was a tough game for us. It was difficult right from the start, but we continued to play hard on defense and that was the key for our win today. It's my first time playing in this competition. Next year I'll play with Spain in the Olympics and it's a great experience for me. Navarro was amazing and he did things, both on offense and defense, that were really big. He really stepped up for us tonight. We're one of the best teams in the history of Spanish basketball and it's great pride for me to be part of such a team."
FYR of Macedonia Center Predrag Samardziski:
"Congratulations to Spain for this victory. We fought and in the end came up short, but I hope we made our fans proud of us. We were really close but didn't make the shots in the last minutes to make it happen. Now we'll try to win the bronze medal and we're going to play the same as usual. We're going to fight whoever it may be and try to make it happen."
FYR of Macedonia Head Coach Marin Dokuzovski:
"We have a big heart and we wanted to play good basketball today. We knew who was our opponent - a great team in Spain - and we knew it's going to be very-very difficult to surprise them. We didn't play defense as good as we did in previous games, but that was because of our tiredness and their offensive rebounds. We played really good and i believe we didn't disappoint our fans."
Spain Head Coach Sergio Scariolo:
"We're very-very happy for this win, but we don't have a lot of time to celebrate. In two days we play for the gold medal. We were told from the start that we should win the gold and now we're in a stage where we have a chance to do it. I wish to congratulate F.Y.R. of Macedonia because they had a great run here. They never-never give up, they play with heart, brain and class throughout the entire championship. It's a great honor to be in the title game after beating them. Navarro was like a maestro today. He was like a picture in the Louvre or something like that. He's an artist of basketball in Europe. In those moments when he's hot it's like he's on his own cloud and he creates so much. It's a joy to have him on our team and he's a great person as well. Everybody contributed for this win, and in the second half we played something that is more similar to our defense." |
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