Kevin Punter, Partizan: 'We've got a lot of character'

Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan head coach
"Coming over here to play against a team that in the last years was European champion, of course you need to come with big respect. And knowing that you need to play almost a perfect game if you want to win. We started the game, let's say, very lazy. They scored everything very easily. It was 23-6. And after that somehow we woke up and started to play. I believed we played, after this, a very good game, and I'm really very proud of my players because this victory is very important for us. Again, against a team that is European champion that I'm sure will continue to fight to be in the best eight. And this team, if they go to the best eight, I don't think that any team will want to go against them in the playoffs. So congratulations to Efes for everything they've been doing these last years, Coach Ataman, his players and all the members of the club. And finally, one more time, congratulations to my players on the great game they played tonight.
Ergin Ataman, Efes head coach
"After the good start of the game, we started to make ridiculous turnovers from our hands, from the first ball, from the first pass. And after that, we started to give them easy baskets. They found 16 points after the turnovers that we made from our hands. And then, in the last quarter, we lost the balance. Again, we continued to make turnovers. And defensively, Partizan really played great. They found very difficult shots on the last second [of the possessions]. We missed the shots that they made in the last quarter, and with this difference, they won the game, so congratulations to them."
Kevin Punter, Partizan player
"It feels good. We started off slow. We were able to overcome adversity and get the dub, plus 10, so that feels good. On the road, too. We've got a lot of character. It starts from the top, starts with our coach and goes down to the players. We just wanted to keep fighting. We knew it wasn't going to be easy coming in, so we just wanted to keep fighting and keep chipping away at it, and that's what we did. [The key to the fourth quarter was] staying poised, going with what you know, relaxing, calming down and taking it a possession at a time."
Mathias Lessort, Partizan player
"It's a big team win... It showed that we have character and we're a team that doesn't give up. I think that we had five or six players over 10 points. That means it's a team win. We didn't depend on only one player. A lot of players came up big. Congratulations to the whole team and my teammates. It's a big win for the playoff race, but we've got to stay focused. We've got a lot of games ahead of us. We've got to do the job, make sure we stay solid. We have a lot of home games, so we've got to make sure we protect the home court and we will see. At the end, we have our destiny in our hands so it's up to us to do the job."