The first game of the season is always a feast.
Well, how else? The big basketball is back in town! And basketball is loved in Krasnodar. We can see the size of this love by the traditional fan walk which is becoming more and more crowded. This time, even some bikers joined.
The first game of the season is always a surprise.
When the main lights of the arena turned out 5 minutes before the start, all the scoreboards lit up with red and green lights. But not just red and green, but with orange reflections – like a basketball; like a flame about to burst from a spark; like a noble metal – who in the league doesn’t dream of this metal?..
And, of course, the first game of the season is a nerve.
You can excel in the preseason, but how will you look when the official games begin? Loko did not disappoint: in the very first attack, Andrey Martyuk opened the score after a combination involving Patrick Miller and Vsevolod Ishchenko (the coaches again gave the 19-year-old a place in the starting five). Less than a minute had passed when Martyuk deftly beat Yenisei captain Sergei Balashov with fine footwork and hammered in a dunk.
The previous season was the best in Yenisei’s history, but then all the star legionnaires left – some to Real, some to Uralmash. And now the difference in class, with all due respect, was clearly seen: when BJ Johnson scored from afar; when Antonius Cleveland finished a fast break after his own steal.
And at the end of the quarter, Vladislav Yemchenko showed that the Kuban land is strong not only with legionnaires: a classy 3-pointer and 20:13 by the first break.
In the 2nd quarter, Cleveland continued to make a difference: he scored a long shot, then made another steal and furiously finished it off himself – it seems like we will see such things from AC more than once or twice.
Johnson scored from here, there and everywhere; Kirill Yelatontsev showed his offensive skills; Cleveland bestowed the audience with another highlight at the end of the period – 46:33.
The Krasnodar public couldn’t wait to see well-known Zakhar Vedishchev in the Yenisei uniform. But he, although being with the team, missed this game due to a minor injury. On the other side, there were very fine reactive slaloms of Vladislav Bliznyukwho, let us remind you, is still a player of Loko, albeit in Yenisei on a sub-sublease (in transit through Pari NN).
But the main heroes of the game were still the Krasnodar players: Karvel Anderson outhung his opponent and scored 3 points at the end of the possession; Yelatontsev was on fire (episodes one and two).
Yeniseoi’s Victor Sanders tried to take the game flow into his own hands, but ran out of courage somewhere around the third incredible shot; and Lokomotiv began making steal after steal – after one of them the Krasnodar crowd even saw Patrick Miller dunking!
Lokomotiv caught the showtime mode: in one episode, Martyuk jumped to save the ball from leaving the court, and while flying made a superb quarterback assist throughout the whole court – Cleveland played wide receiver like a football pro.
Before the last ten minutes, the scoreboard showed 69:46. To win, Loko had just to be okay – and did it well. Mikhail Vedishchev and Vsevolod Ishchenko scored their first points in the VTB United League. Karvel Anderson began the countdown to new 3-point record – he scored 4 in half a quarter (5 in total).
Lokomotiv Kuban played the final five minutes with the Russian five – to great delight of 3,700 spectators.
The next home game – against Astana – is already on Wednesday. The start is at 8 PM. We are waiting for you in the stands of Basket Hall!