After the defeat to PARMA, Andrey Vedishchev shook up the starting five of Lokomotiv: Andrey Martyuk and Patrick Miller remained, Vladislav Yemchenko was added, and Isaiah Whaley and Antonius Cleveland debuted for the Krasnodar club as starters.
Despite this, in the first minutes of game at the Astana Velodrome, there was a strong feeling that the nightmarish second half of the game with PARMA was going on.
Loko couldn’t do anything useful: Miller and Cleveland passed to nowhere, the ball mockingly bounced out of the hoop every time, and the opponent effectively punished for every mistake. When Astana took the lead 14:5, Kirill Temirov and Mikhail Vedischev appeared on the court – after their appearance, Lokomotiv at least started to score. But the first quarter still ended in favor of the hosts – 15:13.
Loko started the second quarter with an almost entirely Russian lineup: Martyuk, Vedishchev, Dmitry Uzinsky, Vsevolod Ishchenko, plus BJ Johnson. For about two minutes, their appearance looked very questionable – Astana scored 7 points in a row, making it 22:13.
Then, Ishchenko and Johnson brought the team to their senses: in 69 seconds of pure playing time, they made 5 steals (two by Vsevolod, three by BJ), thanks to which Loko took the lead for the first time, 24:22. And a couple of minutes later, Ishchenko made two more steals in 14 seconds – and now it was 30:24 in favor of the guests!
It was as if the heavy chains had been put off the Krasnodar team. Uzinsky started taking one rebound after another on the opponent’s post, Cleveland’s assists and long-range shots quickly improved. As a result, Loko took an impressive lead by the big break, 45:28.
The Krasnodar team started the third quarter with another steal and a fine combination, at the end of which Kirill Yelatontsev brought Whaley to the unprotected rim. Astana tried to start a chase: Vadim Shcherbak scored 7 points in a minute, Danila Pokhodyaev scored two long-shots. But Miller with two consecutive hits and Whaley with an accurate long-range throw returned the margin to a comfortable 14-point mark. And the final score in this ten-minute period was set by Vedischev with an elegant floater – 65:47.
Интригу в матче «Локо» убил очень быстро, устроив рывок 11:0 в самом начале 4-й четверти. А стоило Даниэлу Утоми забросить трёхочковый, как дальними попаданиями ответили Емченко и Ищенко ‒ 84:53 за 4 с половиной минуты до конца. Сто очков в итоге краснодарский клуб не набрал, но и соперника на отметку «60» не пустил. А Ищенко в итоге не только установил личный рекорд результативности в Единой лиге ВТБ (15 очков), но и повторил рекорд сезона по перехватам в одном матче (6).
Lokomotiv killed the intrigue in the match very quickly, making an 11:0 run at the very beginning of the 4th quarter. And as soon as Daniel Utomi scored a three-pointer, Emchenko and Ishchenko responded with their long-range shots ‒ 84:53 with 4 1/2 minutes left. The 100-point mark wasn’t reached, but Astana wasn’t let to 60 either. Ishchenko not only set a personal scoring record in the VTB United League (15 points), but also repeated the season’s best for steals (6).
Now Lokomotiv Kuban will fly to Krasnoyarsk, where on Wednesday, November 13, they will play against Yenisei, who also won today (MBA-MAI was defeated). The game in Krasnoyarsk will begin at 3 PM Moscow time.