Loko left BJ Johnson out of the roster for this game. His place was taken by Mikhail Vedishchev, who returned from a minor injury. The team’s newcomer Aleksandr Gudumak also watched the game from the spectator’s seat – he is still recovering from the injury he received while playing for Samara (right against Loko).
Kirill Temirov scored the first points in the game, finding an opportunity to break through under the hoop. He soon fought for the ball with Royce Hamm so hard that the PARMA center needed a substitution to stop the bleeding from his elbow. But the hosts also had to make their first substitutions earlier than planned: Andrei Martyuk (twice) and Dmitry Uzinsky (thrice in less than 3 minutes) quickly got too many fouls.
These minutes, Lokomotiv only managed to score after back door cuts and isolations, so after a 3-pointer by Samson Ruzhentsev, which made the score 8:16, the coaches of the Krasnodar team had to take a timeout. Isaiah Whaley, who entered the game, added energy: he gave Vladislav Yemchenko a pass for a long-range shot, scored two free throws, but by the end of the quarter the margin even grew a little more – 13:22.
Antonius Cleveland opened the second quarter with a good mid-range shot, and Temirov soon became the main actor: he scored a 3-pointer, played some great defenses, made an interception followed by a clever assist to Anton Kvitkovskikh.
However, the Krasnodar team’s shooting percentage was so-so, including from the free throw line. This allowed PARMA to maintain a lead of around 10 points throughout the entire period. But in the 19th minute, Cleveland scored from afar, Kvitkovskikh played great defense twice in a row (he pushed away the ball bouncing along the hoop in time, avoiding a goaltending; then he boldly dove for no-one’s ball in Loko’ post), Temirov received the ball for a good long-range shot – that turned the score to quite acceptable 36:41 by the big break.
In the first minutes after the game resumed, Whaley started showing himself: he was fearlessly finding contact in attack, a couple of times hustled the ball out of the opponent’s hands in defense. But Ruzhentsev kept scoring for PARMA, and by the 25th minute the gap had again grown to 9 points, 40:49.
Then Miller and Cleveland played a fine combination, Hamm received his 4th foul and went to cool himself down for the decisive minutes, Ruzhentsev began to make mistakes – and at some point Miller put Lokomotiv ahead. Also, Karvel Anderson did exactly what the fans expected of him – scored two 3-pointers in less than a minute! By the end of the quarter, the hosts were leading, 59:53.
Anderson continued scoring at the beginning of the 4th quarter: first 3, then 3+1. And when Kirill Yelatontsev made Lokomotiv’s advantage double-digit with a slam dunk, it felt like the home team had everything under control. But PARMA wasn’t going to give up – an 11:0 run, and now they were ahead again, 68:69! Hamm was out with his fifth foul, but his replacement, Alexander Shashkov, started to show class: he found a space in our post and put the ball into the basket, then immediately blocked Cleveland’s shot – 70:71.
Whaley scored “and one”, and soon, with the score tied (73:73), Temirov cleverly forced Ruzhentsev to foul in attack – the forward, who had already brought PARMA 25 points by that point, was also out due to 5th foul.
The shootout of tactical free throws started 2.5 minutes before the end of the quarter. At some point, after a very hard shot by Miller, Loko ran away by 3 points, but then PARMA scored two 3-pointers in a row – 77:80 with 72 seconds left!
In the next episode, the Perm team played good defense, then Whaley blocked Alex Hamilton’s shot, but Temirov missed from behind the 3-point line. Hamilton scored both free throws – “–5” and 12 seconds left. In the final attack, the Krasnodar team failed to find a good shot.
Lokomotiv will play their next game in the VTB United League in Saint Petersburg on January 11 against Zenit.
We invite all Krasnodar basketball fans to support our reserve team – on January 8 at 7 PM, ORSS-Lokomotiv-Kuban will play the first quarterfinal of the Russian Cup against Uralmash in the Basket Hall. We are waiting for everyone, admission is free.