Before the game, Loko head coach Andrey Vedishchev said: “Our task now is to improve our attack. We haven’t shown all our capabilities on the opponent’s half of the court yet.” And from the first seconds, the starting five (the same as two days ago: Andrey Martyuk, Anton Kvitkovskikh, Antonius Cleveland, Karvel Anderson, Patrick Miller) rushed to score as if the decisive stages of the playoffs had already begun.
Anderson opened the scoring, Martyuk scored from the post, Cleveland, like a lynx, took advantage of the transition – 6:2 in a minute or so. Tofaş educed the gap to one point, but Miller with his 2+1 and Kirill Yelatontsev, who converted a tricky pass from Cleveland, returned the gap to three possessions by the middle of the quarter – 15:7.
Vsevolod Ishchenko returned to the lineup and played his minutes with great grit. In one episode, he snatched the ball from several opponents in the attack and scored with a foul. But the main show of that quarter was performed by BJ Johnson: in a final minute he put a long throw right on target from 9 meters, and at the buzzer he scored a very difficult mid-range shot – 25:16 for Loko.
The second quarter began with Ishchenko’s pass finding Isaiah Whaley under the opponent’s hoop. The Krasnodar forward began preparing a throw with such power that the opponent’s defense preferred not to interfere. A block shot from Yelatontsev, a beautiful Kirill Temirov – Johnson – Martyuk play, and the margin became double-digit, 33:19.
Ishchenko made another block, Martyuk proved that it was impossible to take the ball away from him this evening, a little later Miller showed the same grip, Anderson began to score from afar – Loko’s attack in the first half was very fine. Tofaş tried not to lag too far – at the end of the quarter the score was 54:44 in favor of the Krasnodar team.
After a long break, Loko started fast once again: Martyuk with his signature hook after a turn, Miller fwith a put-back after a long-range attempt by Whaley. However, the opponent was good either: they became more active in defense, made a 13:2 run turning Lokomotiv’s advantage to minimum, 62:61.
But then Yelatontsev forced Trevor Thompson to commit an unsportsmanlike foul and was accurate from the line, Miller showed class from the mid-range, Dmitry Uzinsky scored a free-throw after a technical foul from the Tofaş bench – by the end of the quarter, Loko pulled away again, 69:61.
The Turkish team rushed to recoup, focusing on finding open three-point throws. And, despite the classy episodes by Temirov and Miller, the margin began to decrease. At some point, the opponent came within one possession – 81:79, but Miller shone once again. Uros Trifunovic immediately scored from afar – well, hello, the first clutch for Loko at the Gloria Cup!
Martyuk outjumped everyone who tried to block his attempt – 85:82. Trifunovic got it from under the hoop. Martyuk made one free throw out of two letting Marquis Reed tie the score, 86:86. Who did the red-greens give the ball to? Of course, to Miller, who was unstoppable that evening – which means “stoppable only with a foul”. Patrick made both free throws, 88:86. But Tofaş also found its leader: Reed punished us with a penalty for a technical, and then bravely went under the basket – and was fouled with 0.9 seconds remaining! If he scores both free throws, Loko loses! And wow – the sniper scored only one attempt, levelling the number on the scoreboard.
Overtime?
No! The coaches of the teams agreed to a draw. Well, it was understandable: both teams were already fired up which could lead to injuries. No one wants injuries at pre-season games.
Thus, Loko completed the Gloria Cup with two wins, one loss and a draw – some exotic thing for basketball. On Monday morning, the team will go to Moscow, where on September 11 they will start in the VTB United League Super Cup. The game against CSKA will begin at 8 PM. We will show this game on our website.
Lokomotiv Kuban – Tofaş 88:88 (25:16, 29:28, 15:17, 19:27)
Patrick Miller – 22+5+4 assists; Andrey Martyuk – 15+6; Kirill Yelatontsev – 14+8+5 blocked shots; BJ Johnson – 11; Karvel Anderson – 8; Vsevolod Ishchenko – 6; Antonius Cleveland – 4; Kirill Temirov – 3; Anton Kvitkovskikh – 2+4; Isaiah Whaley – 2+4; Dmitry Uzinsky – 1; Vladislav Yemchenko – 0.