Due to the efforts of Anton Kvitkovskikh and Tahjere McCall, Loko quickly took a 4:0 lead, but as soon as Astana scored in response, a powerful cry of joy rolled around the arena – this was made by about 300 representatives of “Kazakhstanis of Krasnodar” society, who came to cheer for their team.
Despite the 3-pointers by Andrei Martyuk and Kvitkovskikh, the Krasnodar team scored not much these minutes, and the visitors even took the lead at some point, 12:13. Loko’s coaches let John Jenkins play, and three long shots in a row were scored by… Vladislav Yemchenko! However, the end of the quarter was in Astana’s favor: Grigory Motovilov and Andrey Desyatnikov tied the score in two fast counterattacks – 24:24.
Mikhail Vedischev’s entrance to the game gave the hosts’ an impetus: in the first attack in the 2nd quarter, he made two excellent passes, and Martyuk finally managed to convert this into 2 points. Then the Kazakhs managed to drag the game into chaos, and in the next 3 minutes, the opponents scored once each – and that was from the free throw line both times, 27:25. But Martyuk made a put-back, Motovilov responded by scoring in his signature run, McCall hit the target from beyond the arc – and the guests took a timeout at “+5” for Loko. For some time, the score fluctuated around this mark, but then Galin Smith scored “2+1” in one attack – 36:34.
At that point, McCall and Antonius Cleveland really got into it: the first mentioned made a great no-look pass, and the second slammed in a dunk. Danil Sheyanov got going: he blocked Smith, then took the initiative in the opponent’s post – and Yemchenko put in the ball bouncing along the hoop. McCall stole the ball from his opponent and sent it to Cleveland for one more spectacular dunk. But the end of the quarter again was taken by Astana: Motovilov and Daniel Utomi reduced the gap to one possession, 42:40.
Some consolation could be the fact that the previous game between these opponents in Krasnodar – back in September – was also equal for half the game, and then Loko took off so hard that they ended up scoring their all-time high 127 points.
And the beginning of the 3rd quarter gave a good reason for optimism: Isaiah Whaley hit a shot from mid-range, Yemchenko made an interception followed by 2 points, McCall hit the target from afar. Astana took a timeout, but it didn’t help much: Martiuk scored, and Whaley didn’t even let the opponent get the ball out of his paint – an interception and 2 more points from Yemchenko! From that moment on, the Krasnodar stands began to consistently outshout the noisy Kazakh sector.
With the score at 53:40, the guests switched to 3-pointers: Utomi and Rustam Murzagaliev scored in two attacks in a row, reducing the margin to 7 points. In response, McCall had a good run: 2 points, a steal and a pass to Cleveland for a poster dunk over Danila Pokhodyaev, then one more assist – this time to Martiuk.
Sheyanov and Kirill Temirov found a way to deal with Motovilov’s runs, blocking him twice. Utomi and Smith continued to score, but now the gap was steadily double-digit. Jenkins showed his passing skills, and the hosts finally managed to become the last team to score in the given quarter – Vedishchev did it from the perimeter, 73:61.
It seemed that Astana, which had been playing with only eight players throughout the game, was rapidly running out of strength: Kvitkovskikh, Vedishchev and Sheyanov increased the lead to the +19 point by the 32nd minute.
The visitors rushed to recoup, Pokhodyaev scored two long-range shots, but Jenkins and Vedishchev responded with their three-pointers. Vedishchev, in general, became the main star of this period: with the help of a Eurostep, he jumped out onto the open ring of the opponent and added 2 points to his statistics, then successfully defended against Desyatnikov, who is 30 centimeters taller, and 3 minutes before the siren, he let off all questions about the outcome with another long shot – 93:71.
In the remaining minutes, Daniil Kosko scored twice, thus making all 12 players in the Lokomotiv roster having scored; Temirov knocked down two Astana giants at once – Desyatnikov and Utomi; the guests also pleased their sector with several beautiful shots.
Now Lokomotiv Kuban will play against UNICS on April 5. The game starts at 2:30 PM. See you at Basket Hall!
