Loko forward DeVon Akun-Purcell, who made his debut in the Krasnodar team in the previous match and scored 20 points away against the reigning VTB United League champion Zenit St. Petersburg, entered the starting lineup. And became the most productive in the home team in the first quarter – 8 points. He was also very active on his half of the court – 2 interceptions, which turned into effective quick breakaways.
At the same time, in general, things were not going well for Loko. Center Zach Smith was a good part of the guests, who scored 13 points in the first half. As a countermeasure, the fans actively asked for the release of the center Grigory Shukhovtsov, who was included in the application for the first time in the season, and even built a personal poster in support of him – but the veteran, who had previously played a lot of cool matches as part of the railwaymen, still remained on the bench.
Following the results of the first five minutes, the guests unexpectedly found themselves ahead – 10:9. After the timeout of the head coach of “Loco” Alexander Sekulich, the red-greens nailed their ring with plywood for three minutes, but they themselves were not very effective in the attack. In the middle of the second quarter, the advantage of Krasnodar was only 1 point – 26:25.
However, the audience (who filled the “Basket Hall” in a fair 4-thousandth number) were still in a great mood. After the first quarter, striker Andrey Martyuk, who missed the match due to microtrauma, still appeared on the court to receive from the hands of the president of Lokomotiv-Kuban and the Krasnodar Basketball Federation Andrey Vedishchev and the chairman of the Krasnodar regional branch of the Federation of Sports Journalists of Russia Maxim Osadnik the prize for the best athlete of Kuban in 2022.
And in the big break, the girls from the Delight team (coach – Vladislav Podlesnykh) – champions of the Krasnodar Territory, silver medalists of the Southern Federal District championship, finalists of the Russian Championship – burned the parquet with a fiery rock and roll. The fans applauded long and enthusiastically.
The Loko players gradually became imbued with dance enthusiasm. Akun-Purcell continued his progressive movement to the title of the most productive player not only of the Krasnodar team, but also of the entire VTB United League. His teammates also scored much more often than they smeared, and at the end of the third quarter, another Loko rookie, Joshi Gray, de facto removed all questions about the winner with an accurate three-pointer – 54:37. Chris Horton also fired up the defense at full speed, performing 5 block shots during the match – one more spectacular and more powerful than the other.
The next match of Loko will be held on January 20 at 17:00 Moscow time in Astana against the club of the same name.