The teams started the game very carefully: the defense of both opponents in the first minutes was superior to the attack by a large margin – by the 3rd minute the scoreboard was 2:2. And then an alarming event happened: PARMA forward BJ Johnson, breaking through the hoop, crashed into Andrei Martyuk’s knee. The Loko center was only able to get up and leave the site with the help of the medical staff.
However, Loko fans soon also received a dose of optimism: Vladislav Yemchenko scored two free throws out of two (IYKYK)! Speaking of fans: the stands of the Molot Sports Palace took seven fans of the Lokomotiv sports society. Hiow, boiz! These days they are traveling around the Urals, visiting either hockey or football. Luckily, they have a chance to witness The best ball game. Aiou, well, as they say, forza, Loko!
PARMA at some point took a lead 9:5, suddenly, DeVaughn-Akoon Purcell immediately got involved: first he scored, then he robbed Richard Solomon and brought Loko ahead – 10:9.
This inspired Kirill Elatontsev, who then just did the same: interception + dunk. But oh what a guy is Patrick Miller! – he made two assists to Jaylen Barford and scored 2 points himself. As a result, Loko had a 19:18 by the big break.
Yelatontsev opened the 2nd quarter with a smart 2-pointer. Oooug, for the fo;;owing minutes, Loko seemed to have some cloudiness: oh what a pass, oh what a shot, oh wh… what…Good that the team continued to work well, so by the 14th minute PARMA’s advantage was no more 2 points – 23:21.
Finally, Lokomotiv streamed into attack, and what a one! Yemchenko put an alley-oop to Okaro White. Magnificent!
Oophhh! PARMA does 6 points in a row! But White is hot: 2+1, then 2, then an assist (quite decent assist!) to Maurice Ndour – 30:29! Loko is ahead! GO Loko!
The teams got involved into a 2-point exchange: Solomon continued to dunk, Ndour did the same in the likewise way, Miller scored 6 points in a few minutes, 4 of which from the free throw line. And when BJ Johnson equalized the score with a frantic overhead shot a few seconds before the end of the quarter, Miller still managed to score again – 42:40 in favor of Loko by the big break.
Yoo-hoo, Martyuk is back! And wow, he scores the first 5 points in this period for both teams. Alexander Platunov answered with 2, but for PARMA this happened to be the only escore for the next few minutes. And Loko began to replenish easily and confidently: Martyuk from under the hoop, Akoon-Purcell from afar – behold 57:42!
The leaders of PARMA stuck to an individual game – 4 from CJ Bryce, and 2 from Johnson are fine, it’s 58:50 soooo… , Oh no, Dmitry Uzinsky was exposed to an offensive foul, and Solomon – that master Solomon – is away with overfouling. The remaining minutes of the quarter passed in a rather chaotic struggle, as a result of which PARMA managed to get a little closer in the score – 60:54.
The final quarter started, as so began the toughness: the gap remained stable (4-6 points in favor of Loko). The stands had a precious moment of Yemchenko scoring a 3-pointer.
And then PARMA equalized! In two attacks: Bryce and Vladislav Perevalov were accurate from behind the 3-point line. Loko added fury in attack, took two rebounds under the opponent’s hoopin one episode – +2 from Martyuk, 69:67.
Ndour blocked Bryce, Stanislav Ilnitsky fouled in atack on Miller, wamd Ilnitsky leaves.
Barford’s throw from behind the 3-point line turned out to be an assist to Ndour – 71:67 two minutes before the siren.
Abdulbasirov made one of two free throws, in response to which Ndour scored again from under the hoop, 73:68 – and a minute and a half left.
Platunov rushed to save Perm from afar – nope. Miller took the rebound, slowed down the pace like a pro – and scored a 5-meter! Oh wow in 44 seconds!
Bryce scored two free throws after Martyuk’s foul, PARMA fought back on defense, and Platunov scored two more free throws – 75:72 in favor of Loko with 12 seconds of net time!
At the very moment Akoon-Purcell received the ball from behind the goal line, he was tactically fouled. He scored the first, missed the second, but in the counterattack PARMA stepped out (after a challenge). Another tactical foul by the hosts is on Ndour, who has only missed once from the free-throw line for Loko so far. This time the forward also was flawless – 78:72 6 seconds before the siren.
Evgeniy Pashutin’s time-out, after which Perevalov scored a three-pointer! But there was only time left for Barford to score 2 of 2 free throws.
Thanks to this victory, Loko got a place no lower than 4th in the regular season – this means a home advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
We also caught up with Zenit in terms of the number of victories – it is against them that we will play in the next round. The game will take place in Krasnodar on April 9, 8:00 PM.