From the first seconds, the opponents took a high tempo. So, even despite a large number of misses, Lokomotiv did not trail behind. Patrick Miller was scoring consistently; BJ Johnson clearly retained the courage that let him score 29 points against Samara; Anton Kvitkovskikh was very useful vigorously rebounding and making important shots. One of his long-range shots reduced Uralmash’s advantage to a minimum (13:14), another one a minute later put the Krasnodar team ahead – 17:14.
Kirill Temirov came off the bench very well – 4 points and an interception in two minutes. Just before the siren, Antonius Cleveland made an alley-oop pass to Isaiah Whaley, so latter set the score 27:25 in favor of Loko.
At the start of the 2nd quarter, after two blocks by Whaley and Cleveland, and 3+1 in one attack by Karvel Anderson, the margin had risen to “+10” by the 12th minute, 35:25. In response, Uralmash actively began to seek contact in the attack – and hit free throws without a single miss, so the score became equal soon – 35:35.
At that moment, both teams seemed to remember that they also must defend, and the remaining 7 minutes of the quarter passed in a tense struggle. It seemed that the Yekaterinburg ring was somehow reluctant to accept the throws of the Lokomotiv players – even seemingly 100% hits flew out of it. Only Johnson and Kvitkovskikh managed to score, and this quarter ended with a score of 43:42 in favor of the hosts.
As the game resumed, Johnson seemed to have broken the spell of the opponent’s ring by scoring two 3-pointers within a minute. Between these shots, there was a successful breakthrough by Vladislav Yemchenko. Lokomotiv ran away by 9-11 points and controlled it quite confidently. But not for long – due to successful isolations by Stanley Whittaker and Tyrell Nelson, and a 3-pointer by Kirill Pisklov, the hosts came within one successful possession by the 26th minute. Kirill Yelatontsev scored after a great assist by Cleveland, but Jeremiah Martin tied it – 64:64. However, the Krasnodar team still went into the last break as leaders – Johnson made one of two free throws.
At the start of the 4th quarter, Miller made it clear that he had zero desire to lose a second game in a row: he scored a 3, and then (as soon as Uralmash tied the game again) ran to the hoop and made a dunk. Johnny O’Bryant levelled the score once again with a hook shot, but Yelatontsev scored a great jumper with a deflection, and Johnson made a 3-pointer and after that blocked Martin’s shot.
As is expected in games of such intensity, the best things happened in the 38-39 minutes: O’Bryant made Uralmash’s deficit minimal with a long shot, 80:79; then Miller pushed through Whittaker under the hoop; Martin and Johnson quickly exchanged 2-pointers; and in the next episode, Johnson made a steal and sent Cleveland on a scoring flight – 86:81 for Loko with 67 seconds left! The hosts’ hopes for success were cut off by a good shot by Kvitkovskikh and a steal by Cleveland.
Now Loko is heading to Perm, where on December 11 at 5:30 PM MSK they will play PARMA. And then home games will take place. The first one is on December 18 against MBA-MAI.