Right from the start, the referees set the bar high for contact: almost no attack in the first minutes happened without someone falling to the floor. No one was allowed to shoot calmly from anywhere. By the 5th minute, the opponents had scored only 7 points: to a long-range shot by birthday boy Anton Kvitkovskikh, Zenit responded with 2-pointers by Vince Hunter and Dwayne Bacon.
Kirill Yelatontsev came off the bench well – he effectively finished the next two Lokomotiv attacks, and in the next episode, Antonius Cleveland fshot the hoop, despite the hands of two much taller opponents, and tied the score – 9:9. The Petersburgers had a run, but then Kirill Temirov made a 2-pointer; Isaiah Whaley scored Lokomotiv’s 3,000th point against Zenit; Yelatontsev finished the quarter with a powerful putback – 15:18, though in favor of the visitors.
Omari Spellman started the 2nd quarter with a traveling and a turnover; then Whaley scored 5 points in a row, tying the score – 22:22. Throws by Andrey Vorontsevich and Trent Frasier again put Zenit ahead, which was followed by a spectacular response from Andrey Martyuk – it’s even again, 28:28.
Soon Shcherbenev put himself into the scoresheet, by scoring 1 free throw out of 2, and then a layup. This made the score 35:33 in favor of Loko (a little earlier, B.J. Johnson scored from afar, and Patrick Miller from close range). However, a series of misses from the home team, along with a three-pointer from Spellman, led to Zenit going into the big break as the leader, 38:37.
Martyuk and Johnson scored at the very beginning of the third quarter. But, what is much more important, Hunter and Sergey Karasev each received their third foul. While these two players were resting on the Zenit bench, Miller finally started to score – after a counterattack, where the he exchanged volleyball passes with Yelatontsev, the hosts took a 50:44 lead.
But something happened with the accuracy of the Krasnodar team’s throws right after: long-range shots stopped flying in at all (by the end of the quarter, this figure dropped to 2/16); even Cleveland needed a second attempt to score from mid-range. This allowed the guests to tie the score at the end of the quarter – 58:58.
At the start of the 4th quarter, Zenit quickly pulled ahead by 7 points: Xavier Moon scored 3+1 (!!!), and Alex Poythress – 2+1. At the same time, Johnson, Yelatontsev and Miller had received 4 fouls each. Nevertheless, the coaching staff left all three on the court – and it was through these players that all of Lokomotiv’s attacks were built in the next few minutes. However, they were unable to reduce the gap – 63:70 at the middle of the quarter.
Miller at some point turned on the superman mode. This allowed Loko to go into the final 2 minutes with just a 3-point deficit, 71:74. An interception from Temirov – and a symmetrical response from Moon! Good defense from Loko, and in a counterattack, Temirov received the pass on an open three-point throw position – missed! Moon was fouled – he was accurate both times from the free throw line, 71:76 and 33.3 seconds to play.
But phew, two bad decisions followed, which cost Lokomotiv the remaining time and another point behind (a penalty from Georgy Zhbanov). Well, the season have just started.
The next game is on Wednesday, November 6. Loko will host PARMA on its home court. The game starts at 8 PM. We are waiting for you!