Loko started without hesitation: Patrick Miller scored in the 12th second, then Andrey Martyuk pushed through Sergey Toropov and added 2 points. UNICS responded with numerous misses by DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, who finally got his fire: first he made 2+1 in one attack, then scored from afar This launched a 12:0 run by the hosts, which resulted in them leading 14:6.
Both teams worked hard in defense, but Loko also constantly made turnovers. Things got better when Vladislav Yemchenko entered the court – he first gave a clever assist to Isaiah Whaley, then scored himself, so the teams went into the first break with a score of 12:18 in favor of UNICS.
At the start of the 2nd quarter, Kirill Temirov scored 4 points in a row, then Karvel Anderson marked his return after the injury with his signature long-range shot turning it to 19:20. The Kazan team scored in every attack, but Loko responded equally. Akoon-Purcell made it from under the basket – Miller did the same. Tony Taylor scored – Kirill Yelatontsev dunked despite a foul. Jalen Reynolds dunked too – Antonius Cleveland performed the same even more spectacularly!
Gradually UNICS stopped keeping up with the pace of the opponent. By the big break, Loko’s lead began to fluctuate at the double-digit mark, and the teams went to the locker rooms with 49:40 in favor of the Krasnodar team.
The game resumed, and it became clear that this was not a consistent growth, but a seesaw – UNICS scored 15 points in a row. Once again, Yemchenko’s appearance woke his team up: with his pass, Yelatontsev scored the first Krasnodar points in this quarter right at the period’s equator; then Vlad gave a great assist to Cleveland, who got so ignited that within a minute he scored 4 more points; then Yemchenko made it 59:60. At the end of the ten minutes, Temirov played the main role: scored 2 points, defended well against Reynolds, threw a 3-pointer at the siren… Alas, missed. But 61:62 at the end of the quarter looked decent comparing to how it began.
Akoon-Purcell scored from afar at the very beginning of the final quarter, but if only he knew what kind of beast had he awaken with that! The only player in the VTB United League with a 100% 3-pointer percentage, Yelatontsev, did it again! Now Kirill has two out of two!
With this shot, the Loko center swung the seesaw of the game so hard in favor of the Krasnodar team that UNICS fell groggy. Temirov made 2 free throws, Miller added 7 points in a row, Cleveland scored 3, Miller – another 2+1. During this time, the hosts scored zero. When Marcos Knight finally made a mid-range throw in in the 36th minute, Loko was leading 79:69.
This train became unstoppable: BJ Johnson started hitting one basket after another, Akoon-Purcell was fouled out, Cleveland blocked a long shot by Dmitry Kulagin and converted a fast transition, offensive rebounds started coming in – and the outcome of the game was beyond doubt a couple of minutes before the siren.
Thanks to this victory, Andrey Vedishchev’s team breaks away from UNICS and continues to pursue CSKA and Zenit. Lokomotiv Kuban will play its next match in Samara on Thursday, December 5, at 6 PM Moscow time.