After four days of pure training, Loko came out to play against Uralmash whose game vs Türk Telekom had finished less than 24 hours before.
Andrey Vedishchev let the same five players start as it was against Merkezefendi: Kirill Yelatontsev, BJ Johnson, Anton Kvitkovskikh, Vsevolod Ishchenko, Patrick Miller. Uralmash coach Rostislav Vergun did the same, sending five legionnaires who had played 30 minutes yesterday to open the game.
And Ural guys started without hesitation, quickly scoring 7 points in a row. Only at 2:15 Miller opened the score for Loko, giving a good example for Johnson who made a fine long-shot.
Soon Andrey Martyuk came from the bench like a tornado: twice in a row had he stuck into Octavius Ellis in such a way that made Uralmash center lay down a bit. A little later, Martyuk got rid of his guard in a textbook way and hammered the dunk. Antonius Cleveland also showed his impressive athleticism, grabbing two rebounds in a row after his own misses and scoring on the third try. The quarter ended with Isaiah Whaley’s fine mid-range attempt – 13:15 for Uralmash.
Снова реализовал трёшку Джонсон, Квитковских отличился тем же, вышедший с капитанской повязкой (наши поздравления!) Кирилл Темиров забил очень сложный бросок из-под кольца и сквозь лес рук, а потом впервые в матче вывел «Локо» вперёд – 36:35!
Спасибо очередному дальнему попаданию Джонсона за 0,1 секунды до сирены – на большой перерыв ком
Loko rushed into attack from the very first seconds of the 2nd quarter: Karvel Anderson scored a three-pointer, Vladislav Emchenko added another one tying the score – 21:21.
In three and a half minutes the teams scored more points than in the whole 1st quarter. Johnson with one more three-pointer; Kvitkovskikh with another one; Kirill Temirov (who was the team’s captain this evening for the first time – our congratulations!), scored a very tough ball, putting Loko ahead for the first time this game – 36:35!
But then Uralmash made a 8-0 run, and after two more offensive mistakes the opponent came 11 points ahead. Thanks to whom? To Johnson and his sniper skills – 0.1 seconds before the buzzer he scored again from the distance, making the score acceptable, 39:47.
After the first half, Loko was great outside the three-point line (6 successful shots of 12 attempts) and in the post (21 rebounds compared to Uralmash’ 14). 11 of the 12 red-green players had already scored. But the turnover figures were sad – 11.
Cleveland scored the first points in the second half, Miller supported the impulse – but Uralmash made another run, and the gap became double-digit.
Danil Sheyanov and Semyon Medvedev made their debuts for the main team. Both boldly went into the fight, Sheyanov worked well in defense, and Medvedev had a chance to score his first points in an epic way – but he was a few centimetres short of finishing off an alley-oop from Ishchenko.
And Uralmash’s legionnaires continued to punish their opponents for every mistake. Soon after Johnson received a disqualifying foul, Loko was trailing 20 points.
Loko’ youth tried hard – and their excessive zeal, like a zebra, switched from mistakes to amazing plays and back. Ishchenko made two steals in a row – but both times he lost the ball immediately. Mikhail Vedischev seemed to have no idea what to do with the ball – and then scored a wonderful 9-meter shot in the very last second of possession.
Isaiah Whaley scored good; Martyuk showed that he can also hit the target from afar; Sheyanov blocked Vyacheslav Zaytsev’s shot; Martyuk showed excellent footwork at the opponent’s post – this allowed Lokomotiv to reach the psychological mark of 70 points by the final siren. But overall, the game definitely gave the coaching staff a lot of things to think about.
The next game is at September 6. At 5 PM MSK, Loko will face Türk Telekom.
Lokomotiv Kuban – Uralmash 70:82 (13:15, 26:32, 12:21, 19:14)
Andrey Martyuk – 13+5; Mikhail Vedishchev – 10; BJ Johnson – 10; Isaiah Whaley – 6+3 blocked shots; Karvel Anderson – 6+5; Antonius Cleveland – 6; Kirill Temirov – 5; Patrick Miller – 4; Anton Kvitkovskikh – 3; Vladislav Yemchenko – 3; Vsevolod Ishchenko – 2+2 steals; Kirill Yelatontsev – 2; Danil Sheyanov – 0+2 blocked shots; Semyon Medvedev – 0+1.