Loko and Zenit have already met three times this season – and all the matches turned out to be one fiercer than the other. Moreover, Krasnodar players regularly act as a Phoenix, reviving to a dramatic ending in matches, during which they conceded both “-14” and “-16”, and even “-24”. In the very first meeting of the season, in the framework of the Super Bowl, the red-greens snatched victory with a throw by Jaylen Barford a few seconds before the siren. And he could have brought victory in the last game, held quite recently, on January 10 – but he did not realize a potentially winning three-pointer.
This time, Lokomotiv-Kuban was traveling to St. Petersburg on a new route for itself. First – on the “Swallow” to Mineral Waters. There the team soaked in the foothill air and history, spent the night – and the next day flew to the city on the Neva. It was in Mineralnye Vody that the glorious history of basketball “Loco” began – and lasted for several decades…
One of the representatives of the Locosemye fan community, Elena Simonova, who was traveling with the team on the same train and collected a cool collection of unique selfies, if she counted the players in the train car, she would be horrified. Only nine!
In fact, nothing terrible happened. Zakhar Vedishchev, who had just been slightly hot in recent days, was getting to Northern Palmyra by a personal route. But he flew out to evening training bursting with health and energy – with the first touch he sent the ball into the ring from the center of the court.
Moments later, a hit from 10 meters, and even with resistance, was noted by Andrey Martyuk. But the traditional title of half court shout winner eventually returned to team manager Roman Pashutin, who scored from the center twice in a row.
Center Kirill Yelatontsev and coach Roman Semerninov joined the team in St. Petersburg. As a result, there are 11 game units in the location of Alexander Sekulich. All of them, despite the many hours of travel, ran an hour-long evening class at a good pace.
Tomorrow at 9.30 the team has another training session. Well, at 17.00 Moscow time, the start of the controversial one will take place.
Broadcast – on the website lokobasket.com , Match Game, TC Start, as well as on the VTB United League website.