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ANTWERP Belgium
94 : 114 Finished
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar

Boxscore with a full stats, photography from the match, quotes of players and coaches you can find on the official site of EuroСup.

The Red-Greens very confidently beat the group's outsider and practically guaranteed themselves a place in the TOP-16.

 

For the first time in a while Evgeny Pashutin changed the starting five. Stanislav Ilnitskiy entered the court from the first minutes, Andrei Martyuk was left out of this game. The rest of the starting players remained unchanged: Mantas Kalnietis, Alan Williams, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Jordan Crawford.

Alan Williams opened the scoring in his first possession. In the next attack Jordan Crawford scored his first three-pointer. Antwerp did not succeed in the first minutes of the meeting and Loko started with a 12: 3 spurt, in which Williams scored nine points. Let’s note the excellent assists of Mantas Kalnietis on Alan. Then Mindaugas Kuzminskas scored eight points in a row and Kalnietis scored a high class shot under the basket. In general, there was no question of underestimating the opponent. Nevertheless, Loko’s coaching staff were hardly satisfied with the game in defense. At the end of the ten minutes, they conceded 22 points at once. Yes, they scored an impressive 35, but the sediment, remained.

The second quarter began with the activity of Reggie Lynch and his powerful dunk, as well as the first points of Ivan Paunic for Loko. Let’s be objective, the defense of Antwerp in the first half of the match was not good. But Loko had complete freedom in updating team records. With three minutes remaining in the quarter Williams scored the team’s 60th point in the game. Loko’s record in the first half in the Eurocup before this match was 59 scoring points. A few seconds before the big break Crawford converted another three-pointer and put an end to the first half – 71:39. 

After the first three-pointer Loko in the second half even the scoreboard at the Lotto Arena could not stand it. Nevertheless, they fixed it and drove on. The rest of the game the team had to spend with proper concentration and not get injured. In the middle of the quarter Loko took the lead by more than 40 points. Some players have already started to relaxing, but it is clear that with such a difference it is quite difficult to be one hundred percent concentrated. Therefore, Antwerp managed to catch up a bit. Very little. Before the decisive quarter Loko won with a score of 95:62.

 

Tune in to the fourth quarter with such an account is a daunting task. Loko did not become zealous and competently decided to save energy for future matches. The main event of the last ten minutes was another record of Mantas Kalnietis – in assists in the Eurocup in the 2020/21 season. Mantas has 15 assists. Alan Williams made another double-double and updated his personal record for scoring in Eurocup – 27 points + 18 rebounds. Loko’s victory in the class with a score of 114: 94.

Will Cummings scored 22 points, while Jordan Crawford and Mindaugas Kuzminskas scored 19 points each. Jordan converted 6 of 8 three-pointers in the game!