It was nice to see that Lokomotiv-Kuban did not remain without support in Perm – there were some red and green flags in the stands of Molot.
PARMA quickly took a 7:2 lead. Antonius Cleveland was not satisfied with this, so he performed the “interception – fast break – 2 points” combination twice in a row. Royce Hamm and Garrett Navels continued to score for Perm, but now it was Kirill Temirov’s turn to take the game into his own hands, and in the most literal sense: first he scored a half-hook with his left, a little later with his right, 11:16.
After shots by Timofey Yakushin and Alexander Zakharov, the hosts’ lead grew to 10 points – 13:23. But Vladislav Yemchenko scored from under the hoop, then added 2 free throws, yet the final word in this quarter remained with PARMA – 17:25 after a throw by Lev Svinin.
Kirill Yelatontsev started the second quarter well: two steals, 2 points and an assist. This allowed Lokomotiv to reduce the gap to 1 point. But then Karvel Anderson got an injury without a contact and had to leave the pitch. We wish good health to our player!
This seemed to excite the Krasnodar team: Isaiah Whaley started scoring one shot after another, Patrick Miller gave a great pass to Alexander Gudumak for a dunk, and then scored himself. At the same time, Loko worked well in defense and, as a result, not only took the lead, but also created a certain gap. Hamm won back 3 points at the siren, but it was still 44:40 for the Krasnodar team.
After the side switch, Temirov performed a turbo-segment: a three-pointer from about 9 meters, and then 4 more points in a row after slaloms. 51:43 – and Yevgeny Pashutin had to take a timeout. After the pause, Whaley added 2 more points – 53:43.
Soon, Miller and Yakushin did not share the ball under the ring, which turned into some razzle-dazzle. After a video review, the referees issued both players a technical foul, Cleveland also received a technical foul, and Alexander Shashkov was issued an unsportsmanlike foul. After free throws in both directions, it was 58:46 on the scoreboard. Soon, Yakushin received his fifth foul and left the court, Hamm committed an unsportsmanlike foul on Danil Sheyanov. The nervous third quarter was finalised by Yelatontsev’s shot – 67:54.
PARMA rushed to play these “–13” back: Hamm scored from afar, Samson Ruzhentsev began to dunk. But Lokomotiv Kuban kept the distance: Miller, Whaley (from variety of distances) scored inportants shots, later, at the equator of the quarter, Cleveland gracefully slipped under the ring – 79:67.
Shashkov reduced it to “–10”, but in the next episode Yelatontsev blocked Ruzhentsev’s shot, and Miller ran away in a counterattack – 81:69 3 minutes before the siren. Hamm played back 2 points – Miller scored in an impressive parabola, and with a foul! Ruzhentsev rushed to save Perm, but only came up with a difficult shot, Loko took the rebound, and Cleveland was accurate from outside the perimeter – 87:71! The remaining minute and a half had no real competitive content.
On the 4th attempt, Lokomotiv Kuban finally beat PARMA – and goes into the break with a streak of four victories.
Loko will play their next game in the spring, on March 1 – it will be an away game against Uralmash.