Lokomotiv started the match furiously – as if telling the opponent: “We’ll die, but we won’t lose at home for the second time in a row!” Kirill Temirov picked up the ball after the starting jump ball and passed it to Aleksandr Gudumak, who opened the scoring with a half-hook. The Krasnodar players gave it their all in defense, forcing the opponent to make difficult (and thus inaccurate) throws, or simply lose the ball. Patrick Miller caught the attacking spirit: he did not make a single miss in the 1st quarter, including scoring twice from the 3-point line. Antonius Cleveland also did his best, boldly rushing with the ball into the thick of the opponent’s players. The first quarter was summed up by a 3-pointer by Anton Kvitkovskikh, 26:10 – Loko played one of the best (at least in terms of defense) periods of the season.
At the start of the next ten minutes, Saratov captain Alexander Petenev quickly received his 2nd and 3rd fouls, and Jamal Jones (who hit the parquet hard in the 5th minute and went to heal the injury) had to urgently return to the game.
Miller immediately brought the gap to 18 points, 30:12, with a pass from Karvel Anderson. But this suddenly brought Avtodor to their senses: the fully legionnaire five slowed down Loko’s attacking momentum. From the 15th to the 20th minute, our team managed to score only 6 points, and the score at the end of the first half was 40:26.
After the switch of sides, the guests also remembered how to score. Jones and Caleb Agada were either opening up well for a throw from the perimeter or masterfully implementing isolations. Even despite the fact that Miller scored for the third time from afar, and Cleveland put up a spectacular block on Agada’s long throw, Avtodor scored 29 points in the 3rd quarter and was already at a very dangerous distance – 62:55.
The beginning of the 4th quarter began to unpleasantly resemble the game three days ago, in which Loko allowed Nizhny Novgorod to drag them into a clutch, and then lost. The tireless Miller continued to score, but Petenev, and then Yegor Sychkov, accomplished 3-pointers, making the score 65:63. And Jones levelled it in the 34th minute!
Finally, Kirill Yelatontsev woke up, who seemed to have been somewhere far away in his thoughts the entire previous part of the match (and the second half of January, to be honest). The Loko center blocked Charles Manning’s shot, 13 seconds later won a rebound on the opponent’s hoop after Anderson’s miss, and assisted to Isaiah Whaley – 67:65. Kerem Kanter responded with a 2+1, or rather a 2+0, because he missed the bonus free throw – and the rebound was taken by Yelatontsev, who and sent Miller on a breakaway, 69:67!
Two Avtodor attacks later, Kirill was in the center of the action again – he blocked Bryant Crawford’s shot, which allowed Whaley to bring the score to 73:69. The opponent rushed to recoup – and Yelatontsev intercepted the ball, so now Cleveland soars above the opponent’s hoop, “+6” two and a half minutes before the siren! The game dove into an exchange of tactical penalties, but quickly emerged back, since Loko ran away to a distance that no longer left room for intrigue.
Now Lokomotiv Kuban will play three away games in a row: on February 6 against MBA-MAI, on February 9 against Astana and on February 12 against PARMA. Then there will be a break due to the 2025 All-Star Game and national team games. On March 1 we will play in Yekaterinburg, on the 4th – in Krasnoyarsk. And only on March 9, finally, Loko will return to Basket Hall. And this will be a super feature – Zenit (with Okaro White and Alexey Shved) is coming.