The first day of the VTB Youth League Final Four in Krasnodar was bright and eventful.
The basketball program was opened by the Friends Match. The game had a charitable mission: help was given to the Center for Child Development and Family Support “Rucheyok”, whose wards are children with disabilities. The “Accessible Sports” charitable foundation allocated 100,000 rubles for the purchase of special rehabilitation equipment, which will enable the center’s children to engage in adaptive physical education and sports.
At 5 p.m. the first semifinalists hit the floor of the Lokomotiv-Kuban Sports Center. MBA-2 and Zenit-M were always on par throughout the game. The teams’ center leaders, Maksim Savchenko of Moscow (17 points and 7 rebounds) and Egor Ryzhov of St. Petersburg (22 points and 12 rebounds) did a great job. The final quarter was decided by a streak of long-range shots by the Moscow club’s captain, Stepan Chizhikov. The final score was 78-73 (20-21, 16-15, 14-14, 28-23) in favor of MBA-2.
Krasnodar with the help of a strong support from the stands got off to a flying start – 8:1. Kirill Temirov and Sergey Shchetinin were active and persistent in the search for the ways to the opponent’s ring, and Kirill Elatontsev guarded his ring with the diligence of an inhospitable dragon, giving away one block shot after another to his opponents.
When Artyom Oreshnikov, who regularly occupies all five symbolic lines this season, replaced Elatontsev, the visitors felt no better – 14:3 after hitting the 18-year-old and 211 centimeters tall giant. A little later, he also made a spectacular alley-oop after a nice pass from Daniil Ginko.
The visitors were tearing the timeout leaves off the match tree – not helping much. Especially during the breaks, Loko’s cheerleaders and young, adorable buttons from the “Aura of Victory” gymnastics academy kept cheering up the Krasnodar fans and the home team. With a solo play by Elatontsev, the lead grew to three times, 24-8. And even that was not enough for the Red and Green team. Another block shot by Elatontsev, a three-pointer by Vladimir Zabolotnev, and a long-range shot by Temirov made it 36-10.
Oreshnikov made 17 minutes and the difference was over 30 points – 45:14. Oreshnikov and Elatontsev spent some time together on the court and even earned the fans a comparison with the “Two Towers” of San Antonio’s golden formations in terms of dominating their opponents under both boards. As for who or what to compare the three-point outburst by Bogdan Bogdanov’s team in the first half, I can’t even immediately think of 10 accurate three-pointers by halftime.
After the teams returned from the locker rooms, the storyline didn’t change much. Temirov scored, Elatontsev and Oreshnikov made rebounds and blocked, and every Loko-2 player without exception continued to struggle on defense – even when the margin reached 40 points after shots by Mikhail Vedischev and Schetinin.
Tomorrow Loko-2 youth team will play in the finals against MBA-2. The game starts at 20:00.